A Brief Guide to Stepping Into Your Power

"If you are doing something for someone else's approval, you may as well not do it" - Neale Donald Walsch

Stepping into your power is all about serving yourself.  This may sound overly self-indulgent at first, but when you go deeply into it you realize that this is the ultimate expression of your soul.

Do you do live your life based on what someone else thinks you should do?  This happens all to often in our culture.  What we end up doing is that we give up our autonomy and our power.  We end up living the life that another envisions for us, thus dismantling our ability to follow our own intuition.  We may not realize it, but at the unconscious level we build all sorts of emotions that perpetuate this submission of personal power.

Who do we often live our lives for?  We submit our power when we attempt to live based on how our social circle thinks we should live and or when we adhere to the norms of society without questioning them.  If those important figures in your life taught you how to listen to yourself so that you can guide yourself through life you were blessed.  If the influences around you told you what to do and never supported your ability to choose and decide for yourself you may have created a way of relating to the world that is submissive in nature.  Furthermore it could be emotionally painful to go against "their wishes" as you are met with scrutiny, criticism, and shame by the important people in your life.

Stepping out the of grip of another's expectation is essential for self-evolution.  This process requires great courage and strength.  When you step into your own power you may be met with opposition.  Those who once had control of you will feel like they are losing you.   Their control of you is what they need to feel secure.  This is the illusion that helps them feel as if they doing the "right" thing by you.  But when you step into your own sense of self what happens is two things:

1)  You start to enhance your intuition.  You enhance your ability to listen to your higher self.  This will inevitably bring you a sense of joy because you live in close alignment with your life's purpose.   

2)  You start to teach others [if they are open to it].  By breaking the cycle of emotional submission you show others that they to can live for themselves and not for what others told them "they had to do."  This is how we help society evolve by lifting the weight of past karma that has had families, communities, and societies, living out the prescribed desires of generations past [which typically is always fear based - for in these cases we live life by "doing what we have to do" even if that means submitting and suppressing our ability to feel the consequences of our way of life {as opposed to not being afraid to see things as they are and build our lives and society accordingly on what the compassion in our hearts tells us we must do for all of life}].

So how do I do this? 

1) Draw conscious awareness into all of your actions.  This is not easy.  It requires a lot of focused attention into the now.  You need to assess whether the things you do in your life are about fulfilling your destiny or someone else's.  Did you take that job because it would make your parents happy?  Did you move to that place because another told you to?  Did you marry that person over another person because that person was more acceptable in the eyes of your social circle?  Again, it takes great courage to ask these questions.  But this process is essential to step into your power.  Yet, realize there were no mistakes.  Every "missed step" is a learning experience.  So question and assess your life.  Is this what you want?

2) Let go of any resentment and move forward.  Anger will only anchor you to the past.  See that those whom tried to control you only did so because this is what they thought was the best thing for you.  In a way this is how they showed love and care for you.  This was what was done onto them so they repeated only what they knew.

3) Meditate. Enhance the ways in which you communicate with yourself.  The language of your soul is subtle and can only be heard when the clutter of the mind does not get in the way.  The mind when used without being anchored to the past can be a great transmitter of the soul, but what we often do is identify ourselves with our thoughts and we end up living a life through these identifications.  These identifications anchor us to the past...and living through the past, based on yours and another's idea as to who you should be, diminishes your ability to step into your power.  Your power resides in the now.  Essentially, you are not who you were yesterday.  You are who you are now.

4) Realize that life is ever-evolving.  There is no end point.  Realize that part of the vision we have for our lives is about controlling how it will turn out.  This control, based in fear, diminishes our ability to live consciously in the now.

5) Surrender your personal will to divine will.  At the core of your being you are divine and you allude any definition.  You are not the thought about who you think you should be or become.  Identification, a process passed down by how others think you should be, divides yourself from the state of grace that is inherently who you are.  You are not the illusion of your ego and the false ideas that you think you should uphold.  This only creates a sense of expectation that has you chasing something that may never be.  When you live a life without expectation, without an idea as to who you should be, you will become aware of a voice within you that has you knowing what to do at all moments.  This is how the divine communicates with you.  This is what developing your intuition is all about.

When we become aware of how we typically live our life based on external factors we are given the power to step into our true nature.  This is what I a mean about serving yourself.  You learn that serving the non-self is what brings you harmony and peace.  The ego-self derives its sense of self from living out external expectations as to what we or others think is best for us.  The latter process leads you into the land of illusions and conditions that weaken our ability to go within and develop our intuition.  The former process, living from the non-self, has us living without expectation and has us clearly rooted into the present moment.

Very few people, if any, have mastered it.  But, this is the life that will essentially bring deep peace to ourselves and to our planet.  It is a process that we step into over time.  Shedding the layers of the fear driven life we live may take lifetimes to accomplish, but without a conscious effort to live a life for our non-selves, not for our circles, and not for the society as it is now, we start to push forward this process and evolve at both the personal level and the social level.  For when we live a life from within we will always choose and make decisions that have a sense of deep compassion for ourselves and for the world around us.  Because at this point we will feel on the inside that all is one.

What is it like to work with me?

In Summary:  

People seek a coaching relationship for different reasons.  Some prefer goal-oriented work, others desire a forum to be heard, and some seek insight.  Yet others want to do more in depth work so they can understand and dismantle old behavioral patterns that are no longer working for them.

I intuitively understand my clients and I understand their psychology quickly.  My education helps me put a framework around the work I do so I do not waste their time.  My experience helps me know what questions to ask you [and when] so that you can get to the root of our unique psychology.  I do all this with a sincere interest to get to know you and a passion to help you grow.  Inevitably you are in the driver seat, but it is the work we do together that brings you greater control over your life in an effective and long lasting way.  I view personal well-being as something that can always be enhanced.

Types of Coaching:

Consultant Coaching: I can be an outlet for you that is separate from both your professional and personal circles.  I can be someone you can form an intimate working relationship with that helps you navigate your life.  Sometimes we just need someone to talk to.

Goal Oriented Coaching: Sometimes we need someone to hold us accountable to our goals and visions.  Whether the goal is personal or professional I will encourage and motivate you as well as help you see alternative perspectives.  It is easier to stay determined and on course when you work with a coach.

Dynamic Coaching: "With insight you will know what to surrender to"

The work I do with people helps them understand how their sub-conscious mind, the reservoir of their emotional body, influences how they feel, how they behave, and why they have particular impulses.  I do not talk in these terms with people [unless they want to], but I ask the right questions helping them hone in on the aspects of the emotional body that is holding them in a state of discontent.

What is the "emotional body?"  The emotional body is who we feel we are.  Yet it is often these emotional identifications that diminish our ability to harmonize with the flow of life.  

From an early age we were taught how to relate to the world.  Before we could consciously interpret the world around us we developed a way we relate to it.  Our parents and or our legal guardians taught us how to see the world.  As we got older it is not that we necessarily became the same people they did or that we developed the same beliefs, but we developed ways of relating to the world in an emotionally similar way.  Now add in traumatic life experiences and the influence of our very unconscious society and we all have been impacted to some degree to not have control over our emotional self. 

To a degree our minds and our feelings have taken control of us.  And to a degree we have become unconscious.  This is something that effects everybody and it is endemic of our time.

Conscious control is our natural state.  Conscious awareness is inherently joyful for it frees us from the control of our emotions and our restless minds.

Gaining insight into the way we operate allows us to understand what it is within us that we need to let go of and accept.  We cannot analyze ourselves into greater emotional health, but analysis can help us understand our defenses and illusory forms of self that limit our ability to be fully awoken.  Inevitably though it is full acceptance of who we have become that allows us to move into who we actually are.  This is how we liberate ourselves from personal patterns that really never served us to begin with.

We can develop a plan that has us working with this emotional body so that it no longer influences you to the severity that it had in the past.  This usually involves employing techniques that help us catch and understand these impulsive feelings as they occur.  I employ a self-created technique that integrates the modalities of mindfulness, DBT, analysis, with the knowledge of particular spirituality based philosophies.

Couples Coaching: This type of coaching, typically done in person, creates a safe place for each person to be heard so that we can understand why there may be trouble within the relationship.  Healing comes in witnessing how the past is still alive and how it is getting in the way of the two people being with each other in harmony.  This is one of my favorite ways to work with people.

In Sum:  All of those who choose to work with me benefit.  Everyone is different.  Not one formula can be applied to all people.  It is a work in progress.  It is a process that evolves as you evolve.  But one thing I can guarantee...it will benefit you.

We Need to Do More Than Believe

"We gotta do more than believe if we want to see the world change" - Dave Matthews [DMB Inspiration]

It is a beautiful day.  The sun shines, the bird sings, and the trees sway.  I dream of the day where my potential children can walk upon the same meadows that I did in delight.  Yet I fear that if we do not act now to change the way things are this dream will be only that, a dream.

The ecosystem, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, is under massive attack.  The north pole is melting at an accelerating rate [Source].  This is going intensify weather patterns.  The open water in the north will absorb more solar radiation, significantly increasing the rate of climate change.  The Siberian permafrost is disappearing, which will send greater plumes of methane gas, of which absorbs solar radiation 20X more than CO2 [Youtube Video].  James Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has warned that if we keep warming the planet it will be a recipe for global disaster.  He estimated that the safe level for CO2 in the atmosphere is no more than 350ppm.  The current level of CO2 is 385ppm and climbing.  He states that these levels already guarantee terrible consequences, even if we act immediately to cut carbon emissions to zero.

The engines of climate change, climate scientists have warned, will soon create a domino effect that could thrust the Earth into a chaotic state for thousands of years before it regains equilibrium.  Chris Hedges states in his book The World as it is that "we have fallen prey to the illusion that we can modify and control our environment, that human ingenuity ensures that inevitability of human progress, and that our secular god of science will save us.  Clive Hamilton, author of the book Requiem for a Species, stated that "the intoxicating belief that we can conquer all has come up against a greater force, the Earth itself."

Sometimes facing up to the truth is hard, but no longer can we hide behind our belief that technology will save us.  No longer can we hide behind the political belief that our government will act with urgency to protect human life and the ecosystem.  The government, run by lobbyists, who are in turn run by corporations inevitably write legislation in this country.  The decisions about the fate of the planet and human civilization are in the hands of people who are morally and emotionally numb.  Is BP's Tony Hayward someone we can trust with our lives [Tony Hayward Quotes]?  People such as this, those whom run politics in the age of corporate totalitarianism, are driven by a craven desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of human life.   Only we can save ourselves.

Dave Matthews is right.  We need to do more than believe.  We need to have more than the belief that God will intercede.  Those reading this, those who want to be free, know it in the hearts that we need to get together and stand up for what is needed.  We need to take the power back.  Those in power will not just give it to us and Barack Obama will not save us.  We need to stand up for ourselves and take control.  Rebellion occurs the moment that the present reality is worse than the unknown future.  If we continue on this path, submitting our power and voice to those who currently lead, we will see a certain future of ecosystem collapse.  So I ask you...can we turn this around?

I do not have all the answers.  I need you!  We all need you!  This is not just about buying green products, this is not just about diminishing your usage of fossil fuels.  These things help, but what we need to do is come together and take the power back.  Chris Hedges makes a point when he states that "if the hegemony of the corporate state is not soon broken we will soon descend into a technologically enhanced age of barbarism."  Is this what we want for ourselves, for our children, and for the planet?  Humbly ask yourself this question.  But do not fear and do not let this overwhelm you, because you are more powerful than you ever imagined.  Especially when you act as one giant family with those who feel as you do!

I write this because I inherently love all of you.  I care about you even though we have not met.  I want you and your family to live in peace and harmony.  But I realize that if we do not act now what I hope for you and I will stay as it is, a dream.

Social Evolution is About Personal Evolution

In the same way that we must question our personal intentions and behaviors to grow so to do we need to question the social intentions and behaviors of our current society.  The two are never separate.

Growth and moving forward begins the moment we summon the courage to create change in our lives.  Courage is a universal phenomena.  It is something we all muster up in times of challenge.  The challenges and travails we endure as individuals we also endure as a collective society and no longer do I see personal growth as solely "personal."  It is our narcissism that keeps us solely focused on our individual troubles.  Yet I believe this narcissism is born from the standards of our cultural ethic.  It is not something we can really blame ourselves about.  Yet without awareness of this we fail to see that our individual problems stem from the fact that our cultural ethic condones a life of isolation, fear for survival, the need for comparison, as well as a multitude of other ways of being that diminish our quality of life.  And in the same way that we are numb to the disastrous effects that the corporate state is having on the planet, so to are we numb to the fact that this corporate state and the life it espouses is detrimental to us as individuals.

Our cultural ethic tells us we never have enough and that the only way to secure our personal need is to compete against each other.  This fear driven ethic is simply not working anymore.  We may not see that there is a way out.  And if we are wealthy enough we find ways to not have empathy for those who are suffering.  But without questioning and inquiring into the possibility of a new way of life, at both the individual level and at the social level, we condone a spiritual death that eventually consumes the entire soul of humanity.

What I am attempting to do with my writing is to encourage you to think for yourself and question standard cultural assumptions.  For example, question to yourself, what is "progress" at the social level?  Is progress all about how we create greater sums of profit?  But hasn't profiteering off the destruction of our ecosystems had devastating global consequences?  The dominant cultural ethic suggests to us that our advancements in technology, medicine, and production out weight the consequences of their proliferation.  Yet, a race that is not mature enough to use advanced technology destroys itself.  A race that does not allow its greatest medical achievements to reach everyone, because it is a for-profit industry, leaves millions bankrupt and or dead prematurely.  We need to look at this reality if we are to grow as individuals.

What ever happened to the idea that progress is the creation of a communal ethic that creates harmony out of the empathy we feel for each other?

Real individual growth is all about being aware to the fact that our lives are inseparable and thus creating a society that allows for harmony between our inner and outer realities.  Without questioning ourselves and without questioning society we fail to grow.  The two are not separate.  Let me give you a quick example.  Anthropologists that have spent intimate time with some of the few nomadic tribes left on the planet have found that these people never harm each other.  There is no rape, no robbery, and no murder.  The reason why is that the tribe instinctively knows it is one organism.  Everyone depends on each other for their individual survival.

Given the state of our world as it is now we can no longer afford to be afraid to look at the hard truth.

It is becoming overwhelming apparent that our society is in the midst of big challenges.  Here in a America we have staggering inequality, a real unemployment rate over 16% [source], and the future of our current economic infrastructure is in imminent danger of collapsing.  The corporate elite who cajoled the public, without a voice, into bailing out their institutions with taxpayer subsidies created a situation that devastated the middle and lower classes.  The elite who control political and economic affairs knows the system is broken.  They are using all tactics possible to accumulate the lasts bits of wealth and dismantle public power as they go out to create their untouchable gated oasis.  We live in a totalitarian regime with a faceless dictator.  Unregulated markets make monsters out of men, but yet the real problem is our apathy that condones this way of life.

Chris Hedges wrote that "cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die."  In the same way that we must seek personal insights to overcome our unique personal challenges so to do we also need to seek social insight into the way we live.  Again, as we fail to see that the collective social problem is our personal problem we are creating a future that is not in the favor of the majority of people.  The excess and narcissistic indulgence that we enjoy now comes at a major cost when we will no longer be able to afford the security we need to survive in the future as the integrity of our planet degrades.

Spiritual and emotional work is not just personal.  It is primarily social.  Imagine asking Martin Luther King or Ghandi what was important to them.  It was not their individual gains that led to personal well being, but rather it was the joy and sense of accomplishment they received from their involvement in pushing society towards justice for all.  When we continue to allow those in power to keep "business as usual" without protesting for what is "right" justice and equality continue to decay.  To see the truth can be a scary thing.  But without knowledge and insight we will not grow, but rather, we will cannibalize ourselves into spiritual death.

St. Augustine stated that the rebel knows that hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage - anger at the way things are and the courage to see they do not remain as they are.  We are at a point now that individual growth is short sighted if it does not account for the well-being of others and a healthy functioning planet.  Do not expect any government to fix these problems.  These problems are not exterior to any of us.  They are within us.  And only with radical courage to see things as they are and a determined collective of voices to make change can we grow as both individuals and as a collective society.  We are undoubtedly one.  And the challenges we face as individuals, in a profound way, arise because we have lost sight of establishing a society that puts the gains of the community first as opposed to the gains of the individual.

How Celebrity Culture is Destroying Who We Are

 We no longer seek community as the most important, but rather that we, the self-proclaimed celebrity, as the most important.

We live in a world that celebrates image over substance and because of this we have lost sight of who we are.  We are bombarded daily with images that celebrate vanity, debauchery, and acts of senselessness.  Through the corporate mass media we are subliminally told what to think, how to interpret the way society operates, what is "right," what is "cool," and how to keep from looking old and unhip.

Since when did Kim Kardashian, the cast of the Jersey Shore, and the endless scandals we hear in the tabloids become more important than seeking truth and meaning?  Why do these headlines garner more attention than the unrelenting destruction of the Earth by the fossil fuel industry, the brutality of war all over this planet, and the overwhelming poverty found everywhere [even in America]?

Why did it become socially taboo to question events such as 9/11, the presence of american troops in the middle east, the possibility that the pillars of our society may be run by a corporate elite, or that our way of life may actually be destroying the vitality of the planet we depend on.  I think it is because celebrity culture has us being afraid to step out and take a stand.  Maybe celebrity culture has us so addicted to their "images" that things of meaning and substance become boring?

I think it is that we care so much what the "other person" may think about us that we seek to adopt a way of being, prescribed by celebrity and mass media, that makes it easy for us to "fit in."  It is the easiest way.  No longer do we need to think about our existence and how we should be.  We have sought image over substance.  And because of this we have lost touch with ourselves.  No longer do I care about how I will be received in this blog or in person.  I actually think it will bring me closer to my true identity.

Modern culture rationalizes existence through the piece meal filter it is feed by major media.  Do you really think that we ever hear the full story?  The full story of any story is never black or white.  It is complex, dynamic, and involves an array of motives and emotions that cannot be summed up by one catchy headline.  If you want to know the full story shut off the television and go outside.  Gather information.  Talk to your neighbors.  Talk with a homeless person and seek to understand their story.  Seek to understand the motives of the elite and politicians.  Yet also don't forget to nurture yourself for a while and listen to the birds, listen to children laughing, and to the wind as it rustles past your ears.  You can learn more from within yourself than you can from any other source.

"The Fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain.  It is designed to drain us emotionally, confuse us about our identity, make us blame ourselves for our predicament, condition us to chase illusions of fame and happiness, and keep us from fighting back." - Chris Hedges

The Universe Within You

"In oneself lies the entire world." - J. Krishnamurti

We witness the cyclonic movement within earthly phenomena, solar systems, galaxies, and even within our bodies.  Think of the hurricanes, the galactic orbits of celestial bodies, and the atomic structures that make up our very being.  The collective of all of this, the universe, is also in perpetual motion.

This universal movement has me questioning something very elemental to life.  Could it be that life is nothing but pure potential and creates itself along the influence of natural laws, of which, may even be under constant evolution?  It gets me thinking that over the span of eternity that anything is possible.

We are composed of the same elements that the stars are made of.  Are we then not intrinsically tied to the cosmos?  I pose that we are.  I contemplate that this connection is so grand that it evades linguistic description, but there still resides a yearning within me to know my roots so I attempt to dive deeper.

So far I have stated the idea that life at the universal level as well as at the human level is all about movement.  I have also stated that movement has the potential to be expressed in infinite ways.  The life of Gaia [the earth] and human civilization, both distinct "layers" of universal movement, exhibit their own rhythms and cycles.  Yet all phenomena is in some way connected.  Consider how astrological and human experience intertwine and impact each other.  How about the intense energy we feel within us during a mercury retrograde?


Each "layer" of experience is a system of its own.  There is the human experience, the animal experience, the geologic experience, the solar experience, the galactic experience, etc,.  How egocentric are we to think that the Sun, the creator of our very own solar system, does not "feel" its existence in some way?  To say no would diminish our own reflective capacity.  For we are the Sun.  And the Sun is what gives us life and the ability to perceive.

Observe the way our atomic structures move.  They orbit around a structure.  Also consider the relative space between atomic structures.  Just like the cosmos, the make up of the human body is mostly empty space.  It is almost like we have microscopic universes within our bodies.  I know these ideas are extremely abstract, but who is to say that the universe does not exist within us?  Maybe there is no start or end in creation and that all of life travels in and out of each other?  Could this be the etheric level of existence that fringe scientists talk about?  Could it be that all of life is connected in the "ethers?"  Size and shape is only relative and who is to say that we are not mini-gods co-creating within our own bodily universes?  And if this is "true" how does this impact the way we relate to life as a whole?


The energy we radiate into the world becomes directed by our own inner awareness and intention as to how we choose to live.  If all of life is connected why would we constantly choose to live a life that diminishes the vitality of the world around us [and also within us].  Our way of life is devouring our world.

Would it not be in our best interest to intend for outcomes that lead to symbiotic relationships with the world as a whole?  

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Gregg Braden on empathy, energy, and healing

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All of nature is a storehouse of galactic energy that traces its roots back to the same source.  That source has been what humans have been pondering and trying to understand since the dawn of their awakening.  I like to call this source spirit.  Call it what you will, it is just a word.  But it is the experiential realization of source that is what will bring you in alignment with what a symbiotic relationship would be like with the world around you.  Just like your body has a desire for you to nourish it so to does the world around you have a desire to be nourished.

When you gain an awareness that feels empathy for all of life you have connected with source energy.  To what degree does this empathy for life impact the way we choose to live?

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Yes, there are "natural laws" in the universe, but change is the only constant.  Even "god" is changing all the time.  If "god" is the all that is why would "god" not intend change so that it could know itself at deeper and deeper levels?

Imagine what source [god] feels like during the birth of a new galaxy  ... 

At this magnitude of size our existence is seemingly non-existent.  Yet we can feel the utter immensity of the cosmos.  This is because we are the cosmos. 

Maybe god intended that life could be innately connected so that god [the universe] could experience itself through all things [including you!]?  Maybe the same seemingly infinite cosmos that we stare upon on a clear night also exists within you?  As they say...as above so below...

Be who it is at the core of your being...when you do this you will find yourself very close to nature, to community, and to your fellow sentient being.  We are all offspring of the cosmos herself...and the cosmos knows only what is natural...to just be exactly who you are...