About Me

I am a devoted health and Earth advocate from St. Paul, Minnesota. My journey into health and wellness started in my teens, fueled by a passion for competitive sports. I realized early on how food and weight training vastly improved my performance both on and off the field. This path led me to a fulfilling career in healthcare, amassing seven years of valuable experience in nursing. My personal health/wellness journey fostered a deep appreciation for holistic wellness and opened my eyes to the limitations of the conventional approach.

So in 2023, I took a leap into entrepreneurship, launching my own business, The Heart of Awareness, as a nurse health coach with a focus on nutrition and stress management. This venture allows me to seamlessly integrate my medical expertise as a registered nurse with other nature-driven practices, guiding you to overcome stress and anxiety.

As a Board Certified Nurse Coach, I have spent the past four years passionately studying and practicing health coaching, helping many improve their health and well-being through holistic lifestyle design. This is a co-creative process that focuses on aligning healthy eating, sleep, movement, and mindfulness practices into your life. I started on my personal health/wellness journey over a decade ago, when I was introduced to healthy eating and meditation. Among all the various modalities I have utilized since then, I attest to meditation being the greatest influence on my health today.

Beyond my professional endeavors, I find boundless inspiration and joy in the simple pleasures of life, particularly through sustainable farming, the warmth of community, and the serenity of nature. When I'm not immersed in my work, you’ll likely find me hiking through the woods, meditating, or foraging for medicinal plants and edible mushrooms—an embodiment of my holistic approach to wellness and deep connection to the Earth. 

A deeper dive into my story:

For a lot of my life I felt as if I was in constant resistance with myself, struggling with stress management, and self-esteem. I was numbing my feelings with BIG distractions, and it felt like I was living groundhog day, cycling between pain and short-lived pleasure, day in and day out. The pressure to fit in and fear of judgment were overwhelming. I was taught it wasn’t safe to be authentic, yet it never felt good to be inauthentic.

I was afraid of vulnerability and scared of the unknown. The fear of not being good enough, the fear of failing, and the fear of abandonment were shackles on my soul. It was a stormy sea, and I was a ship without a compass, lost and directionless.

But you wouldn’t have guessed I had these fears by just looking at me. I hid it pretty well.

I was the perfect nurse, always going above and beyond to meet the needs of my patients and their families. Typical Minnesota Nice. And I would neglect my own needs, break my personal boundaries, and cope with the resulting stress in very unhealthy ways. I may have looked healthy on the outside, but that didn’t match the inside.

After just 5 years in the nursing field, I burned out twice. I had no motivation or energy outside of work, I was abusing substances, tech, porn and food. I was numbing my feelings, clogging my gut, fogging my mind, and not showing up in my relationships the way I needed to. My cortisol skyrocketed and threw off all my other hormones. I didn’t know how to stay consistent with managing my stress. That was the last straw.

But then, I found a beacon of hope in my heart. I knew I didn’t have to live this way— chronically stressed. I saw friends, family, and other role models overcome tremendous amounts of stress and transition to a life of vital health and wellness. Why shouldn’t I be able to do the same? Motivated by a future vision of a thriving family and community, I decided to face what I had been shutting down within myself my whole life. To drop what I’d been hanging onto. It was a process of building mental well-being, emotional stability, and reconnecting with my body and soul. It showed me the possibility of becoming a more authentic version of myself.

Taking the first step was the hardest. It required me to confront my fears and vulnerabilities head-on. And I did, and oh, what a journey it has been! Through this process I learned natural ways to manage stress, improve self-esteem, and rekindle my drive. This helped me unlearn harmful patterns and adopt healthier habits. I started meditating, focusing on simple living, eating nutritious foods, and channeling my energy into things I love like dancing, nature, art, service and community. I noticed a drastic boost in energy, clarity of mind, less cravings, and my eczema was nowhere to be seen!

The change took much longer than overnight; it wasn't easy. But with time and consistent effort, I saw changes. And it would’ve been much harder without the help of my mentors, coaches, therapists, and chiropractors. I started trusting my decisions, giving myself grace with no shame, and found my center again. I learned to navigate the stormy sea and became my own compass. 

Now, I’m more present with myself and others, able to focus, without all the mind chatter. After seven years in nursing, I’ve discovered that I’m much more passionate about preventing health issues before they start, rather than treating them after they happen. Chronic illness is at an all-time high in the U.S., and a big reason for this is chronic stress. It’s essential for us as a society to learn how to manage stress better.

So beginning my venture into Health Coaching felt right for me because I am passionate about helping people, especially men, prevent chronic stress and burnout before it turns into something more serious— cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. Part of the reason men die earlier is because they bottle up their stress and cope in destructive ways. My mission is to create an atmosphere that normalizes vulnerability in men. Vulnerability builds strength! It is not weak.

 In 2022 I received my coaching certification through the Board of Nursing and launched my business, The Heart of Awareness LLC, in August, 2023! Since then I’ve poured my heart into developing a program that focuses on Mindset, Habits, and Lifestyle modifications. It’s called The Aligned Health Program. I designed it to help you create your own curated plan to develop resilience to stress, prevent chronic illness, and step into your power and vitality. Because, in a world of BIG distractions, we’re stripped of our power when we let these distractions take hold of us and form habits. When you drop the habits, and their associated mindset and lifestyle, and you establish healthy ones, you can expect to experience greater mental clarity, improved digestive health, and a deeper sense of emotional awareness. That’s been my direct experience at least. And it’s been nothing short of profound. Words cannot even describe. 

So I stand here today, eager to support you in your health and wellness so you can feel free in your mind, body, and soul too. I bring you my clinical knowledge and expertise, combined with the wisdom from my personal experience with natural health practices, to offer a unique, holistic source of support. I’ll help you develop consistent, healthy habits to help you build resilience to stress. I’ll help you develop a resilient mindset and a lifestyle that prevents burnout. I’ll be there with you every step of the way, even helping you navigate the complex healthcare system. BUT, you need to commit to doing the work in order to be successful.

I'm still a work in progress, aren't we all? The stress is still there, I just cope with it better now.  I’ve learned to embrace that, accepting who I was, am, and becoming. My journey is a testament to the fact that change is possible, in fact, it’s inevitable, and we can choose how we want to change. And it's okay to ask for support along the way. 

Whether it’s the community, a coach, a therapist, or all of the above, you can overcome the stress you’re holding onto and step into a more alive, healthy, liberated version of you.

If you're going through something similar to what I went through, remember, the first step is always the hardest. But once you take it, you begin to see just how resilient and powerful you truly are. Doors are waiting for you that you don’t even know are there.

Yours in health,

Danny