Introduction: The Restorative Lifestyle Method
It's time for the most important adventure of your life.
Go ahead and take a big, deep breath. It’s time for the most important adventure of your life.
The road ahead will have peaks and valleys that lead you through moments of clarity and moments of fog. By embracing and working through all of it – and forging ahead even when things feel uncomfortable – you’ll peel away layers and discover versions of yourself you couldn’t have conceived of before deciding to do this work.
Use whatever energy you’re feeling right now – whether it’s nervousness or excitement – to open your heart and mind to the thrilling, unfolding mystery that is healing and personal growth. There’s so much we don’t know in the early days of the journey, but as you move forward, you’ll uncover clue after clue leading you toward your own unique brand of peace, happiness and abundance.
Don’t worry about having a plan or knowing precisely where you’re headed. If you’re anything like me at the onset, you may have nothing more than an intuitive hunch that life should feel a whole lot better than it does right now. That hunch is a spark of hope shining through the fog of your false conditioning. You can now fan that spark to light the journey through your transformation. You should feel strong and proud to have reached this point.
Now, all you have to do is begin. And then tomorrow, you begin again. This is all a practice. The goal is not associated with an endpoint, but in the consistency of the practice. In this adventure, repeated action propels and restores us. The beauty and power are in doing – to the point of defining a lifestyle, which in turn re-defines us.
You have so much more power than you know right now. So, trust yourself. Trust in the endless amount of positive change you can create. This adventure will last a lifetime, and there’s absolutely no limit to the joy and abundance you can generate.
What is The Restorative Lifestyle Method?
The Restorative Lifestyle Method is a 4-step holistic healing and empowerment system designed to help you break through the generational cycles and false beliefs that keep you from creating a life you love. A much-needed bridge between traditional healing and the success habits found in performance-based personal development, this approach leans heavily on personal responsibility, discipline, mindset work, and proven transformation practices.
What's the basis for this methodology?
The Restorative Lifestyle Method is based on a universal truth I discovered along my own journey, as I sought to heal from childhood trauma while also learning how to be a great mom and succeed as an aspiring entrepreneur. There were things I desperately wanted for my life; but there were also things holding me back.
What I learned is that a vast majority of us suffer from a damaged connection to our authentic selves. The damage occurs throughout the course of our lives as we absorb information from people and experiences. We then translate that information into firm beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. Whether true or false, functional or dysfunctional, those beliefs collectively form our identity and come to rule our lives.
The degree to which our identity, or belief system, becomes false and problematic varies greatly depending on the quality and content of our lives (particularly that which occurs during childhood) and manifests across a wide spectrum of the often-silent internal wars we battle on a day-to-day basis – whether we’re overweight, anxious, depressed, broke, lacking as parents, failing in relationships, hesitating in business, or struggling to find passion and purpose in life.
We should spend adulthood fervently dismantling our false beliefs so we may live better and realize our true potential to create a life full of happiness, love and abundance. But most people stay stuck on autopilot, failing to grab hold of a conscious awareness around why their lives don’t look or feel the way they want them to.
The Restorative Lifestyle Method exists because I figured out how to turn off the autopilot, transform my belief system and change the course of my life forever.
The path to getting here was something I had to piece together myself, though.
It took more than a decade of pouring myself into books and podcasts; working with life coaches and therapists; training to become a yoga teacher; testing every practice and modality under the sun. But I never found anything comprehensive and prescriptive - nothing showing me exactly how, when and where to plug in all the different things I was learning. I didn’t know what to expect with different practices, how much of anything I should be doing, what to do with the thoughts and feelings that showed up afterward…. I didn’t even know what healing and growth were supposed to look and feel like.
Unable to grasp the big picture, I was often frustrated by what seemed like small, fleeting results.
Then one day in my early thirties, I had an epiphany. I realized that everything I’d learned and tried along the way – while fragmented and a tad haphazard - was having an impact. My life looked and felt entirely different than it had in all previous years. In fact, I was moving closer to my vision: I had my own loving family; I was a happy and present mother; I was reaching new levels of career success; there were different people around me; and I woke up every morning energized by possibility.
Over the next several years, I continued the research and applied more intention to my approach – carefully crafting my lifestyle around the things that bring me peace, help unravel my traumas and false beliefs and force me to grow toward my life ambitions. I discovered that the journey isn’t about just one or two practices; it’s about creating an entire life ecosystem that works harmoniously in service of our healing and growth.
Not only have the positive results of my journey grown and grown, but also, my path has crystallized into a methodology, or system, I can now share with others who are seeking change in their own lives.
Everyone's journey is unique and you can’t skip the hard work and sacrifice necessary to moving forward. But The Restorative Lifestyle Method takes the guesswork (and therefore a great deal of time, trial and error) out of what it takes to heal from the past and create the life you’ve always dreamed of. It’s the structured guidance and resources I wish I had early on.
Here's what you should know:
I developed The Restorative Lifestyle Method to give people a more effective and sustainable path to improving their lives. I approach healing and personal development as a lifestyle endeavor. Working with me, you'll learn how to transform your day-to-day life in a way that positively shifts your belief system, thereby re-shaping your identity and reconnecting you with the joy and abundance that live inside you.
But YOU have to do the work to see results.
We are all in charge of our own wellbeing, but sometimes we need a helping hand to light the way forward.
I'll give you the power of knowledge and proven restorative tools. And I’m here to support and guide you along the way. But it's impossible for me (or anyone else) to make change happen for you. You are the only person who can do that for you, just as I'm the only person who can do it for me.
One of the first things we'll cover together is victim mentality and the importance of letting it go. While many of us have dealt with difficult people and experiences that have negatively, and even unfairly, impacted our lives, we must take full responsibility for all that's necessary in healing, personal development and protecting our peace.
This book is written for adult children.
Jump to Chapter 1 to learn more about what it means to be an adult child.
Author’s Note: This book is based on my personal experiences, reflections, and interpretations. Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy. The events described are true to the best of my memory and are shared from my perspective. The views and opinions expressed are my own and are not intended to malign any individual, group, or institution.
Disclaimer: I, Danielle D'Onofrio, am not a therapist or doctor. I am an everyday person sharing personal experiences and the practices that have worked for me. My content, products and services do not replace medical or mental health support from licensed professionals.
Copyright 2025 Danielle D’Onofrio, LLC