How Imagining, Stepping In, and Celebrating Your Light Transforms Your Life
“I never imagined this life, because what was written in my soul was greater than anything I could dream!”
Sanet Van Breda
As I sit down to write this blog, my eyes brim with tears……tears of pure gratitude. The kind that spring from deep within when your heart knows you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.I often whisper, “God, thank You for this life, for this heart that still believes in kindness, for the incredible souls You have guided into my path.”
Never could I have imagined this life me, holding sacred space for so many. And yet, here I am, celebrating 60 years of being alive and almost seven years of walking fully in my purpose. I steward two beautiful soul-led communities—Diamond Beauties Forever and Tanzanite Heroes with thousands of hearts from 58 countries and counting.
This is not just my story it’s a story for you, too. Because the magic was always mine… I just had to say yes.
1. Here’s what I know now
The love I was seeking, the confidence I thought I didn’t have, the purpose I believed was still far away, it was always inside me. I just needed to unlock it. For me, that unlocking began on April 6, 2019, a day I now call my D-Day—my Day of No Return. It was the day I made a soul-deep decision: I want to live, not die. And that choice changed everything.
It wasn’t a dramatic moment with flashing lights or soaring music. It was quiet. Honest. Sacred. I simply knew that continuing on the path I was on would lead me further from my soul’s truth and I wasn’t willing to lose myself any longer.
That meant I had to put myself first for the first time in a very long time. Not in a selfish way, but in a deeply self-honoring way. I needed to move more than I ate. I needed to turn inward and hold close my experience, my sacred contract with God, and trust that this journey was mine to walk… even if I had to walk it alone in the beginning.
There were no shortcuts. No instant answers. Everything felt hard, because everything was hard. I didn’t have a blueprint or a team. I had fear. I had doubts. And I had whispers from my past trying to tell me, “You’ve failed before. Why would this be different?”
But I also had faith. And a growing flame inside me that said: “Keep going.”
So I created something simple, but powerful. I called it the Oumie and Zander Plan, named for the love I felt for my grandson Zander, and the legacy I wanted to leave behind. It was a promise to myself: to be present, to move every day, and to choose love over fear, no matter what.
Those first three months? They were the hardest. I prayed constantly sometimes 10, 20 times a day. I cried. I fought old habits, old beliefs, and other people’s labels. I dodged the comments that came cloaked in “concern” but really just echoed my past failures.
And yet, I kept going.
Because deep down, I knew I wasn’t just changing my body I was rebuilding my soul.
What made it even more difficult was the long shadow of diet culture. It had been part of my life for decades. Plans, failures, shame, more plans. I had to reject it all. I had to stop letting the world tell me what I should look like or how I should live and instead, ask God and my heart what my path was meant to be.
This journey was no longer about weight.
It was about worth.
And I was finally learning how to see mine.
Over the past six years, I’ve grown more than I could ever explain.
I had lost the weight. I was getting stronger, lighter, freer not just in body, but in spirit. My plane ticket was booked for April 12, 2020. I was finally going to hold my beloved grandson, Zander, in my arms again. My heart had dreamed of that reunion every single day.
2. But the world had other plans
COVID arrived, and with it came silence, sirens, uncertainty. The borders closed. The flight was cancelled. And suddenly, all of us were trapped in a reality none of us could comprehend. For the first time in my life, I felt the entire planet holding its breath.
I couldn’t get to Zander. And I couldn’t meet his baby brother, Zayden, who had just entered this world. My arms ached to hold them. My soul shattered quietly. Grief crept in, not just for my family, but for the loss of all the dreams I had carried so close to my heart.
Still, I had to keep going. I was still working in the corporate world, and thankfully, I could do so from home. But the tears came daily. My eyes were constantly puffy. I tried to keep my head above water, to stay grateful, to remain strong.
3. Then came another blow
In July 2020, I was informed that I would be one of the employees over 50 being retrenched. Just like that. After 21 years with the same financial institution. After two decades of pouring my heart into the work, showing up with excellence, being rated a top performer year after year.
It didn’t matter.
I was now seen as expendable.
And in the quiet whispers of that rejection came echoes of an old pain:
The misconception that if you’re overweight, you must be lazy.
That you’re less capable. Less valuable. Less… everything.
I had worked my entire life to disprove that lie. I had over-delivered, over-performed, overcompensated. Not to prove to myself that I was enough……
But to prove it to a world that had already made up its mind about women like me.
It broke my heart. But it didn’t break me.
Because something had changed.
I had changed.
The Sanet of 2019 might have spiraled. She might have gone back to old patterns, old stories, old wounds. But not this time.
This time, I chose to rise.
4. The Turning Point
In the quiet that followed my retrenchment, I sat in what felt like complete darkness. Not only was I grieving the job I had given so much to, however I was grieving the version of myself that had been wrapped up in the identity of overachiever, high performer, and provider.
But here’s the beautiful truth: When everything else is stripped away, what remains is your essence. Your soul. Your light.
This was my moment of becoming. The pain cracked me open…… what poured out was purpose. I started to hear the whisper of something greater, something I now know was God calling me home to myself.
As Earl Nightingale said, “We become what we think about.” And for the first time, I began to think differently. I began to see myself not as someone who had lost something, but as someone who was being redirected. Refined. Realigned.
I started dreaming, not from desperation, but from divine imagination. I gave myself permission to dream a life not based on survival, but on service. Not shaped by past labels, but by soul contracts I had forgotten until now.
I remembered who I was.
5. From Survival to Soul Work
I began building from the inside out. The physical weight I had shed was only the beginning. The deeper healing was just beginning to unfold. I took every lesson—every moment of failure, doubt, and heartbreak—and laid them at the altar of transformation.
That’s when Self Love Ignites Me was born—not just as a business, but as a divine movement.
I realized something powerful:
The world doesn’t need perfect people.
It needs whole people.
People who’ve walked through the fire and still choose love.
This became my mission—my purpose.
To walk beside others, to remind them:
You don’t have to wait for permission to rise.
You just need to say yes to yourself.
As Ernest Holmes once wrote, “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.”
So I stopped telling the old story….And I started creating a new one.
The Three Steps That Changed Everything
For those who are still standing at the edge, afraid to leap, this is for you. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to begin.
Here are the 3 steps that helped me rise from fear into fullness:
- SHOW UP
“Show Up. Step Up. Soul Up.”
This became my motto. It’s the heartbeat of everything I do now. The first step is to show up, for yourself, your healing, your dreams. Not for approval, but for alignment.
On April 6, 2019,my personal D-Day, my Day of No Return, I decided to live. I chose to no longer be at war with myself. I started moving more than I was eating, practicing faith instead of fear, and keeping my deepest soul contract between me and God.
Every day was hard. It was raw. It was lonely.
But I kept going.
Why?
Because the love I was seeking was inside me all along. And now I’m here, offering you a hand. If you’re ready, I invite you to book a coffee chat with me, judgment-free, heart-to-heart. I’m here to walk beside you. You’re not alone.
- IMAGINE
Once you begin to show up for yourself, the next step is to dream.
Let your imagination speak again. I call it Dream in 3D.
Dream bigger than your history. Bigger than your wounds.
When I allowed myself to imagine—truly imagine—I was guided to things I never thought possible:
✨ Hosting over 610 coffee chats in just 3 years and 5 months
✨ Connecting with amazing souls across the globe
✨ Founding groups like Diamond Beauties Forever and Tanzanite Heroes, where love, wisdom, and purpose bloom
✨ Co-creating platforms like Diamond Moments Magazine, where everyday miracles are celebrated
✨ Create spaces and stages for extraordinary souls to share their wisdom, brilliance and transformative stories on all my TV Shows and Summits – Your Voice TV Network
✨ Celebrating Authors in our Soul Diamond Publishing House
And most of all…………I imagined a life where I loved myself.
And now, I live that life.
As Earl Nightingale reminds us: “Everything begins with an idea.”
Let your ideas lead you.
They are the seeds of your future.
- CELEBRATE
You don’t have to wait for the finish line to celebrate.
Celebrate the courage it takes to begin.
Celebrate every small step. Every new choice. Every time you say YES to your soul.
Thought-Provoking Questions
💎 What would your life look like if you stopped waiting for permission and started loving yourself first?
💎 What dream have you buried that your soul is still whispering to you about?
💎 What would it mean to fully celebrate who you already are, not someday, but now?
I Am Statement:
✨ I am worthy of love, purpose, and a life beyond my wildest imagination. ✨
Conclusion
So if you’re reading this and you’re still unsure, still standing in the shadow of fear…….please know this:
You are worthy.
You are capable.
You are already enough.
The love you are looking for isn’t out there.
It’s within you.
When you love yourself fully and completely,
The world around you begins to reflect that same love back.
That’s what happened to me.
And it can happen to you too.
Show Up. Imagine. Celebrate.
That’s the path.
That’s the promise.
Call to Action:
Let’s keep inspiring each other! 💫
Come walk with us.
Visit Diamond Moments Magazine across all our platforms and subscribe to receive inspiration, celebration, and community straight to your heart.
Because your story matters.
And your soul deserves to shine.
With soul love and light,
Sanet Van Breda
Founder, Self Love Ignites Me
✨💎
Look after yourself, smile often and keep on dancing, mwah!
