I was consulting with a corporate client this morning, we were discussing strategies to create a more mindful workplace. During our call she asked me what my philosophy and approach was… I paused and noticed my mind time travel back 20 years to the “moment” my life shifted. I honestly don’t believe there ever is a “moment” per se when everything shifts but rather a serious of moments that begin to shift the direction of our life. In hindsight I can see that this “moment” was just one of many in that series.
I brought my mind back to the present moment and summarized 20 years of experience in a few sentences, and as I heard the words coming out of my mouth I too became inspired by them. Side note: Sometime we don’t give our own inner wisdom enough credit… listen to yourself.
My philosophy and frameworks are guided by two guiding principles:
Live. Learn. Teach.™ These three words came to me in 2007 when I first started teaching yoga, I didn’t know exactly what I was doing (I still don’t at times) but having finished a Masters program in Public Health and just come back from a 6 month internship in India… one thing was clear to me… I have to LIVE every moment, LEARN from my life experiences, and TEACH what I know to be true to me.
Eat.Move.Meditate.™ Food and movement had always played a pivotal role in my personal well being partially because I adopted movement into my life from a young age when I started playing soccer running long distance runner along with growing up always eating home cooked Indian food. As I continued to evolve and grow in my own wellbeing I discovered Meditation in 2010 and that became the missing link that completed my personal well being equation.
These two philosophies have becoming my guiding principles to living life well. They are used in my coaching work with clients both individual and corporate. But they didn’t develop overnight. It was a journey.
When I was young all I ever dreamt of was being a doctor, I was massively intrigued by the body and how it functioned and had a deep desire to heal and help people… and then I went to college and everything changed. I was a genetics major at a top notch science school in California and I spent hours studying all I could about science, when I wasn’t studying I was volunteering at the hospital and observing first hand the physician – patient relationship in various hospital settings from ER to OR to GP. Something felt missing, there was a disconnect that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. My curiosity to explore this gap lead me to an internship in Washington D.C. at an organization advocacy group for young people. It was here that I was first introduced to education on a level above and beyond standard schooling. We marched to the white house united by a single cause – improve and protect the lives of young people through health education. We created manuals, we wrote letters, we lead seminars, and we had passion.
I came back after that internship with a new purpose… to advance the health of our community through education. There is so much power in education, it is what separates our human race from other animals. The pieces of my current frameworks were already being developed back then.
I found myself at USC studying public health and working at a homeopathic pharmacy where I was first introduced to crystals, alternative therapies, and energy work. Somehow it didn’t feel foreign to me at all, I was open to exploring these different modalities. Internally I was conflicted though, this new path that was emerging was so different from that of my friends and that which I had envisioned for myself. I had no idea then that I would spend the next decade on a journey of slowly unlocking my own inner wisdom and healing while shifting the direction of my life.
Now I can’t imagine living the life that I had once imagined for myself… The path that I’m on certainly isn’t the easiest but is one of great growth and experience.
All this to say… listen to your inner wisdom, experience life fully, and trust that it works out how it’s supposed to.
Be well,
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