Returning to the Roots with Purnama | Ep 36
What if the place that shaped your wounds… also holds a piece of your belonging?
There are places we learn to turn away from.
Places where we felt too different.
Too foreign.
Too much… or not enough.
Places where we tried to belong… and quietly decided, “maybe I don’t.”
And so we leave.
We search for ourselves elsewhere, in other lands, other people, other ways of being… hoping that somewhere out there, it will finally feel like home.
We reinvent.
We adapt.
We become who we need to be to survive.
And yet… something in us remembers.
A quiet pull.
A subtle ache.
A feeling that something is still unfinished.
But what happens… when life calls you back?
Not to relive the past, but to meet it differently.
Not to become who you were, but to reclaim what was left behind.
In this episode of Born to Be Free, I sit with Purnama Melissa, a singer, songwriter, sound healer, ceremonialist, and keeper of indigenous wisdom.
Born to a Swiss father and a Balinese mother, Purnama carries two worlds within her. A life shaped by both richness and rupture, by cultural depth and deep personal challenges. Her younger years were marked by trauma, disconnection, and a profound sense of not being understood, leading her to leave home at 18 in search of healing.
And yet… through that very path, something sacred began to unfold.
Through music.
Through prayer.
Through returning to the land of her ancestors.
This conversation opens within a solstice space, a threshold of transition and deep remembrance.
From Switzerland to Bali, from disconnection to devotion, from silence to voice, this conversation reveals what it really means to return.
Not by becoming someone else…
But by remembering who you have always been.
Because the journey is not about choosing one identity over another.
It is about learning how to belong… to all of yourself.. to your roots..
To the parts shaped by love.
And the parts shaped by pain.
To the cultures that formed you.
And the spaces where you felt you didn’t fit.
There is something tender here.
The quiet ache of not fitting in.
The in-between spaces.
The longing to feel at home, somewhere, anywhere.
And also… the beauty of discovering that belonging is not something you find outside of you.
It is something you allow yourself to return to.
Again and again.
What if nothing was wasted?
What if the places that didn’t hold you the way you needed… are still part of your path to wholeness?
If you’ve ever felt like an outsider in your own life…
If you’ve ever questioned where you truly belong…
If something in you is being gently pulled back, to your roots, your voice, your truth…
This conversation is for you.
- KEYNOTES -
- Growing up between cultures and feeling like an outsider
- The belief that art cannot be a real career
- Discovering music and voice as a spiritual path
- Returning to ancestral roots and Balinese culture
- A spiritual awakening through nature and travel
- Understanding the meaning behind Balinese offerings
- Devotion as the heart of Balinese life
- Music and sound as portals for healing
- The wound of not belonging and the search for tribe
- Finding community through sacred gatherings
- Healing the relationship with one's homeland
- Nature and mountains as living elders
- Gratitude for both spiritual and material abundance
- The danger of competition in spiritual spaces
- Spirituality as contribution rather than competition
- The impact of colonialism on cultures and traditions
- Protecting the sacred traditions of Bali
- Recognizing the wisdom of indigenous cultures
- Living in harmony with the seen and unseen worlds
- The responsibility to give back to sacred lands
- Remembering that humanity is one family
ABOUT Purnama
Purnama Melissa is a singer, songwriter, and sound healer, as well as a ceremonialist, yoga and philosophy teacher, and keeper of indigenous wisdom. Born to a Swiss father and a Balinese mother, her path weaves together diverse cultures, devotion, and healing through music, ritual, and community.
Follow Purnama on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purnama.world
Website: https://www.purnama.world/
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