soul calling

After I finished my Ph.D., I moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana

June 27, 2023

After I finished my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, I tried very hard to do what I was ‘supposed’ to do—interview for an academic teaching position at some sort of prestigious university. But I couldn’t do it. Instead, I moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana. Here’s what happened instead:

I developed self-reliance. In the city, my go-to response was to get the nearest person to help. But here in this remote area, there were no neighbors to be called when emergencies happened.
I developed a wide skill set. In rural and remote areas, by necessity, you become a generalist. I did things I never would have done had I remained in the city.
I developed openness. In the city, I held staunch beliefs about issues such as the need for gun control. Living in the country, I developed a deeper and more fleshed-out understanding of diverse views
I developed leadership skills. In the city, civic organizations can feel large and intimidating. In a rural setting, everyone pitches in.
I developed passion for different things.
I discovered the freedom of identity.

Check out my full story on Tiny Buddha: “Our Creative Genius Shows Us Possibilities the Rational Mind Can’t See” :

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/feeling-stuck-and-unhappy-your-rational-mind-doesnt-have-all-the-answers/

A spiritual call will haunt you until you heed its message

January 20, 2023

I spent years trying to fit into traditional boxes, yet never fitting in… because an inner calling will never fit into a box. I spent more years not trusting my path and feeling that I wasn’t the right person for what I felt called to do. I didn’t want to make waves, speak out, or call attention to myself.

But… Spirit doesn’t care about credentials.

A spiritual call will haunt you until you heed its message. You are the only one who can answer it.

True callings are unique.

May 27, 2022

I see so many people spend tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars on training, certifications, and degrees because they’re afraid to embrace their true gifts. They think that they just need the proper credential and then they can finally do the work that’s been calling them.

They feel that what they DO know isn’t “good enough.” They feel they need outside validation.

But true gifts are by definition UNIQUE. Your gift is yours alone to validate and own.

And when you value it, the rest of the world will value it too.

I’ve never had the proper credentials or certifications. What I’ve had is resourcefulness.

If you’re a creative person with innovative ideas, you may not have a track record of being validated by the world…yet. And you probably don’t feel you have the proper training and ‘credentials.’

How could you? By definition, creativity is something the world hasn’t seen before.

I have yet to work with a client who needs more training in order to achieve her life purpose and express her creative gifts. In fact, it’s amazing how many smart people (especially women) collect endless certifications and credentials and spend all kinds of money (and time) on training after training, because they fear their real gifts aren’t legitimate or good enough.

I don’t mean to disrespect training programs. I just object to the knee-jerk tendency to solve every career dilemma or redirection with yet another certification.

One of my clients calls it “kicking the can down the road.” Her focus is always on something outside of herself that she needs to get. Once she gets it, she kicks the can again.

The problem is, she never gets there.

Our thinking minds tell us we need more training. We think we need something outside of ourselves and all we need to do is “get” it.

But your gift is already present within you. You need to own it and then share it with the rest of us.

Some thoughts on social media

March 4, 2022

Back in the early 2000s, before social media was an industry, I knew a woman named Carol who maintained a huge social network. And much like today’s social media, it involved constantly relaying her sexy vacations and all the fun she was having in her life.

I was in a group with Carol and one evening she let her guard down and admitted that it required a tremendous amount of her energy to consistently seek and cultivate so much applause.

At the time, she was dying of cancer. But Carol kept up the extensive social facade until the day she died.

I sometimes wonder whether she would have had more resources for her own healing if she had redirected her energy toward herself rather than others.

I have a client who has 2 million followers on Instagram. Her underlying energy pattern is of being “stuck”—she is stuck needing to maintain these people’s opinions of her. There is no downtime. No time to pause and understand what REALLY is going on with her.

Of course, not all social media is bad. I absolutely love how it connects us. I love that it keeps me in touch with people I haven’t seen for 20 years and allows me to meet new people. I love the creativity. And I love strangers’ inspirational posts, especially during these times of such worldwide crisis.

But if our personal resources and attention are being spent solely toward maintaining large social media followings, that’s an enormous amount of energy.

Living and expressing our true creative gifts requires turning our attention to our own deep knowing. It requires a focus on one’s inner life. Sometimes we need to look within. And when we do that, other people’s opinions don’t matter so much.

I’m in this business group and the big thing is how many Instagram followers one has. That’s our culture too. The more outrageous you can be, the more attention you can attract, the better. It doesn’t matter at all if you’re sharing anything of any substance or value. If all you care about is followers, you probably aren’t.

In the meantime, there’s a whole other inner world that wants to express itself through you.