A life committed to seeking, learning hard lessons, letting go and slowly expanding led me to and through yoga, and then the opportunity to facilitate mindfulness groups and offer private life and business coaching came along, bringing many amazing things with it.
Coaching has clarified, enhanced, and amplified my personal development, aligning me with my core meaning and purpose. The opportunity to give openly and freely, to share from an ever-widening heart and an ever-deepening connection to my soul (with ever-increasing skill) is the best possible destiny I can imagine. I’ve also been mentoring new teachers and coaches, an endeavor that offers yet another way to give, one that brings it’s own particular rewards.
As for my (other) practices…
I have developed (or more accurately, adopted from Bali) the habit of touching my heart every time I greet someone, often as I speak, and also when I bid farewell, which is just fine in Bali I suppose, and is assumedly perceived as an odd quirk everywhere else (I do it a lot). As it helps me to center, for now I am allowing this eccentric habit to simply be.
My current and all-time favorite practice, the most rewarding & the easiest one of all (once all the hard work of clearing out most of the gunk was done) one that can and does include all my other practices, is to simply live in a state of gratefulness, welcoming everything as an offering, and expressing appreciation back to the world in myriad forms. It involves what is called “pronoia” (the opposite of paranoia) the understanding that everything in the universe is conspiring to help, serve and support us in the perfect way, always. This practice also comes with a very powerful mantra: “Thank You”.
Lest this be perceived as the approach and mindset of a Pollyanna, a big part of my day-to-day practice involves managing chronic “unwellness”. I live with very pronounced symptoms of an unknown, unnamed, mysterious ‘dis-ease’ that is invisible to the outside world (it could be Lyme, it could be Chronic Fatigue, it could be that mercury toxicity mixed up my brain… I’ve treated all this and more, and still not sure….) After spending many years in various stages of the “Grief Cycle” as they call it, I’ve moved into what I call the “Bliss” cycle: Allowing, Forgiving, Appreciating and Embracing with Gratitude.
Gratitude, because feeling so unwell so often has taught me so much—humility, the value of slowing down and simplifying, heart-opening, and letting go. I’m much less attached to life now and much more open to “death”. Which frees me up to savor what is. Yes, it’s that profound. Yeah, I’m keepin’ it real, yo. “Sri Sickness” has been my guru, and has done more to fuel my evolution that any human guru I’ve ever met. It taught me that everything—everything—is a gift, here to help us wake up.
As I rouse myself from slumber, it’s such a pleasure to see so many fine folks around me, doing the same thing. That includes you, dear reader. Good Morning!
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