I stepped back a little in my blogging and outreach this past month because I’ve been preparing for BIG transformation. When I’m in that space, I step inward. I even start organizing and purging the house — I imagine that’s an outward manifestation of what’s happening inside.

My purge example, I’m a book lover (hoarder) and purged about 4 paperbag fulls of books from my shelf.

My Call to Action Continues in a Big Way

If you’ve worked directly with me over these last years, then you know that I love me some good, deep soul-work. I joke in my Reclaim You workshop series that we do soul-work not homework. But it’s true, all my workshops and 1:1 systems include practices to get at that true core inner work so that we can live our service outwardly. Soul-work is a pathway to heal and create a life that is mind-body-soul-Earth aligned. And that is my jam, as my 9 yo says.

So here’s me walking my talk. Last year, I applied for an Animas Valley Institute high country quest, because I craved a big break open. And I knew it was time to have an experienced, skilled guide who could help catapult me through the remains of my transformation into full soul-aligned living and loving.

Being a year out of the higher ed workplace culture and cycle, I clearly could see the lingering patterns of guilt when I’m not hustling or resistance to fully resting or even feeling the tug of people pleasing and holding myself back a little when I had no reason to anymore.

Yet I felt the shifts - I know I’ve done some great inner and outer work. It’s so critical to honor the growth and celebrations. And I want you to know that transformation is a process - you can make a lot of shifts when you’re finally ready - support helps big time - and you continue to shift with nudges (you know I love nudge theory). And then you wake up 6 months or a year later and you’re like, ‘damn, look at where I am today’. I’m living the goodness from all my previous soul-work. And I knew there was more waiting.

I heard my first call that set me on a soul-full path during a meditation back in 2018. I had been on my healing journey already from my herniated discs (due to chronic stress - that shit will kill ya). At that time, I had created space through my Finnish sabbatical and master gardening volunteering. Both of those were critical to creating some separation from the chaos of capitalism. They both in their own ways showed me there was a different way to live my life out of that deathly hustle.

Fast forward to this year, I’m stepping fully into serving my community as a catalyst - I stand for folks who are ready to transform by reconnecting to inward - values and purpose to live out their greater community impact. I’ve begun to gather my soulful community and align my work with creating relationships and connections to serve.

Ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin (creator of the Animas Valley Institute) says,

“The gift you carry for others is not an attempt to save the world but to fully belong to it. It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place…The offering of that gift - your true self - is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs.” - Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft p. 13

This quest is for me to fully engage in dreaming “a wildly imaginative partnership with Earth” that can be regenerative and evolving forward into new relationships not yet understood, simultaneously. While I already incorporate nature-based interventions and somatic, trauma-informed practices into my work, I am so looking forward to further integrating all of this goodness into my work with others! Stay tuned. In the meantime….

“Times of transition are, in fact, the best opportunities to renew the search for meaning. As our old stories fall away, we being to see new possibilities. When most empty, we’re most able to be filled anew. Our eyes open wide to the vastness of life’s horizon. Then, our world having become as spare and clear as the open desert, we can, at long last, behold that one feathered gift settling down softly before us on the untrammeled earth.”

-Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft p. 228

What transition is happening or wants to happen within your soul and life?