a beautiful life
The woman behind Abella Vita
The dying taught me
how to live.
I'm Kristina, founder of Abella Vita and a death doula. What women taught me at the end of their lives changed the way I live mine, and became the foundation for everything I now teach women about living theirs.
Your life can be beautiful, and you can still feel like you are watching it through glass. If you know that feeling, then perhaps you know more of my story than you think.
Where it began
From the outside, my life was beautiful.
On paper, I had the life we are all told to want. A beautiful home, a full calendar, and causes I gave myself to completely, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the things I believed in.
If you asked how I was, I would say, "I'm good. I'm so good." And I meant it. My life was good. And somewhere inside that good life, I had lost touch with what it felt like to be fully present for it.
The fog
Somewhere in it all,
I quietly disappeared.
I wasn't unhappy. I just wasn't fully alive.
I lived half a step ahead of my own life, finishing the dinner while I planned the morning, present for everyone and never quite present for myself.
Maybe you know that feeling too.
The turning point
Then my body brought me to my knees.
One morning, my body dropped me to my knees with what I was sure was a heart attack. It wasn't my heart. It was my life, asking me to wake up.
What the bedside taught me
Everyone dies.
Almost no one truly lives.
Years earlier, I had become a death doula. I thought I was there to help others face the end. Instead, they taught me how to live.
At the bedside, no one wished they had achieved more. They spoke about the moments they had been fully alive, and the moments they wished they had been more present for.
Sitting with the dying taught me what a lifetime of achieving never could: a life truly lived is something you have to choose.
What I understand now
Your cracks are not flaws. They are where the gold goes.
Maybe your life looks nothing like mine did. A different career, different people, a different story. But if you have ever wondered why a beautiful life didn't feel the way you imagined, then we already share the important thing.
There is a Japanese art I love, called Kintsugi. When a treasured piece breaks, they do not hide it, and they never throw it away. They mend it with gold, and the golden seams run through it, catching the light.
The cracks are where more presence, more belonging, and more beauty can enter. And they are exactly where the gold belongs.
What I help women find
Three ways back into your own life.
For the woman ready to feel more of the life happening around her
Feeling fully inside your own life instead of watching it through glass.
For the woman everyone else counts on
Being held, for once, instead of always doing the holding.
For the woman ready for a life that feels as good as it looks
Letting beauty become something you experience, receive, and fully enjoy.
Beauty was always meant to be lived.
A beautiful home, a beautiful place, a beautiful life, all of it matters most when you are fully there to feel it. Beauty is not just something you create around you. It is something you fully experience.
Why Abella Vita exists
You built a beautiful life. You should not have to wait for someday to live it.
I came back to living by being fully present inside the life I had already built. I created Abella Vita so other women could do the same, while there is still so much life left to live. A place to set everything down. A place to be fully present for the life you worked so hard for.
Abella Vita means a beautiful life. A life fully felt. Fully lived.
KristinaFounder of Abella Vita · death doula · 25 years in movement, breath & bodywork
How it works
Three simple steps.
Begin with the free 5-Minute Micro-Retreat
Five quiet minutes in Kristina's voice. Your first taste of feeling alive again, today.
Choose your retreat
A local gathering, a signature retreat in Portugal or Costa Rica, or a private intensive, whichever your life is asking for.
Return and live on purpose
Come back present, awake, and fully here, then carry it into every day that follows.
The women who came alive
In their own words.
I came back feeling like I'd had a year off. I finally remembered who I was underneath everything I was carrying.
My cup is overflowing. I didn't know I was allowed to feel this good in my own life again.
It was life-changing. I came home present, and everyone around me could feel the difference.
They come from different cities, different careers, and different chapters. They arrive as strangers. They leave with friendships, and with a table they carry long after the retreat ends.
What actually changes
You return to the same life, and experience it completely differently.
You are at dinner, and you actually taste it. Someone you love tells you a story, and you are fully there to hear it. You sit outside with your coffee and notice the morning. You laugh with women who know you.
You go back to the same house, the same people, the same work, the same responsibilities. Only now, you are fully here for them.
The retreat gives you the room to be fully present in your own life. The transformation is what happens when you carry that presence into every day.
Start here · free
Five minutes to feel alive again.
A free guided pause in Kristina's voice. Five minutes to drop in, breathe, and remember what it feels like to be fully awake in your own life. This is where it begins.
Free
The invitation
Your beautiful life, fully lived.
Presence · Belonging · Beauty
There is so much life left to live. Be here for it.
Abella Vita. Come and live it.