Dina Samra cried on the side of Yosemite Falls several times. On the way up the tallest waterfall in the park, with her husband a few steps ahead, they kept saying the only thing that mattered: keep going.
If you’ve ever been on a hike like that, and you’re not an avid hiker on top of it, you might believe you’re not going to make it. For Dina, there was a voice in her head telling her to stop, that it was too hard, that this wasn’t for her, and she kept going anyway. Somewhere near the top, she realized something that had nothing to do with elevation gain: the voice telling her to stop is the same voice that’s been running her life. (That bitch!)
In this episode of Muscle Moments: fear says stop, you go anyway. On the other side you’ll find out the fear is a big fat liar. Happens 100% of the time.
We talk about:
A definition of strength outside the gym
Why Dina walked left 15 years in venture capital with no plan
The ecological definition that reframes what it means to “rewild” your life
Why boundaries are the answer
The muscle memory of play
Strength Is Perseverance In Disguise
At first, Dina said “muscles” when I asked her about strength and quickly admitted that what we’d expect her to say, when what she really believes is that strength means perseverance. The ability to get through the hard thing and come out the other side steadfast in what you want, even when everything around you is telling you to fold.
(“The ability to do hard things” or some version of it is a similar answer across all these conversations! I’m digging in!)
Dina’s response struck me because she paired perseverance with joy, and that is not common. She believes perseverance and joy are connected and I said “tell me more!”
According to Dina, you persevere, get through the hard thing. Then you look back and there’s a physical sense of pride in having proven to yourself that you could. It sounds nebulous, but it’s the same thing that happens when you finally hit the number on the bar you didn’t think you could.
I’ve built a career telling people strength is the base layer for life; your energy, your confidence, how you show up. Dina got there through a trail. I got there through a barbell. Different doors, same room.
Rewilding is a Personal Correction.
With a 15 year career in the tech and venture capital space, Dina took the opportunity to step and reflect on why she was feeling burnt out, even though she loved the work. Through that lens, she realized that she outgrew it.
The word “rewilding” comes from ecology. When a species gets pulled out of an ecosystem, sometimes by force, the whole system tips out of balance. Reintroduce it, and the ripple effect can bring the entire system back to life.
For example, in Yellowstone there were no wolves for 70 years. No predators means the elk overgraze the riverbanks. No riverbank vegetation means no beavers. No beaver dams means the rivers stop reshaping themselves, and the birds and fish and otters disappear with them. Reintroduce one species, and the whole ecosystem finds its rhythm again.
That’s what fifteen years in corporate hustle does to a person, according to Dina. You get so conditioned to tie your worth to your title, your salary, your output, that joy and play and creativity and stillness get quietly pushed out. Rewilding is about putting back what was already yours.
What does that look like? Forms of play, things that bring you excitement; do you remember what was fun when you were little? I didn’t.
The Pivot
So, she quit her job in venture capital, bought a camper, and drove toward every national park she could find with her husband. No income. No plan beyond the road itself.
The scary part was walking away from something stable when she didn’t yet know what she was walking toward. A leap of faith based on the deepest foundation of self-trust. It’s a leap most people never take because the fear of the unknown seems heavier than the pain of what they already know.
Movement got her through it. Not in the gym, though. Traditional gym culture never worked for her, never felt like her people (I’m not offended, I swear). But, hiking did. Climbing did. Something about moving her body in nature quieted the noise enough that she could actually hear herself think beyond the fear.
The lesson here is clear: move your body and you will clear your mind. Clarity comes with movement.
Boundaries Are The Answer
We’re not telling anyone to quit their job. What Dina is asking people to notice is if the situation is filling you up or draining you? Those are two very different problems, and you get to decide if being drained works for you or not.
For the most part, real boundaries are what let you stay in a situation without it costing you everything. Creating time to turn your brain off for ten minutes. Setting a hard stop on the workday. Giving yourself the altitude to see the view from 30,000ft instead of white-knuckling through it at ground level.
This is the part of her message that I think gets missed. You don’t need a camper and a sabbatical to start practicing this. You need to get honest about which situations in your life are the ones quietly taxing you, and start setting the boundaries before you can’t.
The Muscle Moment
Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in North America. Dina broke down more than once on the way up, and her husband just kept saying keep going. Making this the mantra for their journey.
At the top, it was one of those moments that bridged the experience to her personal narrative. She realized the voice that told her she couldn’t do it had been running quietly in the background for years, as the operating system for her whole life. If she could push through her fear on that mountain, she began to believe she could push through anything.
The muscle Dina flexed here is calling back to the proof that fear is wrong.
The Softer Side
Off-mic, Dina shares her secret weapon is a playlist called “Sing”.
It’s every song she used to belt out as a kid, Disney and everything else. Now she plays in the car - or wherever - whenever she needs to reset. It started as a way to reclaim parts of herself she’d lost track of. Now it’s a tool she uses to center and ground herself in knowing what she can do, with joy.
This might be the lesson I love most from the conversation: find the thing you used to love before the world told you it wasn’t productive. Do it loud. Do it often.
Your Turn
Figure out how to quiet your mind enough to hear what the joy is telling you. That’s a breadcrumb to follow.
The questions for you to consider:
What’s the thing you’re staying in right now because it’s familiar, not because it’s good for you?
What would it take to trust yourself enough to let it go?
Change isn’t as risky as you’re afraid it is.
But you won’t know that until you build the strength — physical and otherwise — to test it.
If you’re ready to start building that strength for real, that’s what I’m here for.
About Dina
Dina Samra is the founder of The Rewilding Collective, where she designs and facilitates nature-based experiences, retreats, and burnout workshops that help people quiet the noise, reset their nervous systems, and reconnect with themselves. She’s a certified forest bathing guide, a strategic advisor with the Perkins School for the Blind Innovation Center, and the author of the newsletter Observations From the Wild. Before all of this, she spent 15 years in venture capital and startup innovation.
Find Dina:
Instagram: @dinasamra | @the.rewildingcollective
LinkedIn: Dina Samra | The Rewilding Collective
Newsletter: Observations From the Wild
Email | hello@rewildingcollective.co
