Category Archives: Reclaimation
Starting anew, reclaiming one’s life
How Many Tips Did You Say???
I get a serious kick out of reading the headlines of my email service’s news reel…..”3 tips to get your belly flat now!” or “5 ways to make him love you forever!”…… yada, yada, yada.
Yes, there is amazing bullet pointed advice out there, but to pigeon hole a number and cram the entire population into that quantifier is ludicrous!
I admit it,…. I am a professional coach. I also happen to be a PhD and an energy intuitive and if there is one humbling fact that I have come to realize in my short life on this planet it is this……. Each of us is so intrinsically unique, so magnificently faceted in that uniqueness there is never one way to address anything truly pertinent.
And since when is everyone who has had personal experience an “EXPERT”??? People are coming out of the woodworks, doling out advice with the title of expert because they visited the school of hardknocks a time or two. Well… who hasn’t?
Before you pay 49.95 for “3 Weird tips to…… ” or purchase an online tutorial for the amazing deal of $399.95 to permanently change……”, why not realize that any investment is best learned when it is profoundly experienced.
You want a heartbeat and an acutely listening ear when it comes to building a support system for clarity and change?
By all means, if you are genuinely drawn to a fabulous article or bewitched by a clever titled book…. read on! But be really super honest with yourself….. are you intuitively drawn to it or not?
You see, your answers are exactly that…. “your answers”. We are meant to live a life wide awake to ourselves, excavating and discovering our own riches! There is NO ONE else like you alive or dead! You are a fresh new perspective on humankind, with your own delicious adventure to tell.
So, good advice… you bet, it’s out there but when it comes to knowing ourselves and the uniqueness of our personal dynamics, relationship quirks, physiological anomalies and what have you….. take the time to inquire and get the support of an intuitive coach that listens to you. One that reveals how much you already know and have access to yourself, but just needed a skillful mirror to reflect it back and hold you to what you know and want!
Your answers can’t be quantified, repackaged and sold en masse…… great marketing, but no bueno.
Anything that is going to last is going to be as customized and specific as you are!
YOU want to know how many steps it will take before you have…….. let’s ask the right questions first and let your intuition reveal it’s brilliance to you!…. with the help of “your” coach.
Let me know how I can help!
Walking “The Way”…. My Way.
Most of us really do know when we have reached maximum saturation, numbing repetitive existence, cyclical breaking points, or any other number of visceral “wake up calls” that speak deeply of our personal need to step out of our current form of existence. We know.. and we often delay. And delay. I have been no exception to this form of existence… until recently.
I had heard about this journey called El Camino de Santiago de Compostella or as often described as The Way through a book of Shirley MacLaines entitled, “Camino”. It inspired me deeply and haunted my evolving bucket list with the notion that I really could and must do this thing. As life often pushes a point that we don’t lurch forward in a timely enough manner, I was re-introduced to this trek through one of my all time favorite authors, Paulo Coehlo’s work, “The Pilgrimage”. Again a nudge to figure this out, and make it happen.
Well folks I get all the reasons why I could quite rightly justify putting this thing off indefinitely…. I’ve been an overwhelmed homeschooling mother of 4, full-time homemaker, two children with special learning needs, married to a disturbingly jealous husband bent on monitoring all my time, invested as an ongoing holistic health student and really just far too over committed.
Circumstances change as time moves forward and my excuses continued to validate why now just wasn’t ripe yet for leaving. After one failed attempt in the spring of 2011 and nearly 10 full years after having first been inspired and drawn to this grand plan, I made the unilateral decision that early summer of 2012 would be my year, come hell or high water!
And so it is!
Providence would have it that I must have been meant to be accompanied, rather than trekking off from all my worldly responsibilities alone as I had envisioned. Brilliant. My peregrino companion was to be a colleague and dear friend with a relish for adventure and stretching her comfort zones internationally for years, just like me. What additional incalculable talents she also brought to the undertaking was an international street sense and magnificently fluent and beautifully spoke Spanish. Incalculable value is not an overstatement for this gift of the tongue, wholly lacking in myself with a bit of scattered and unimpressive high school French.
It was plainly understood before we set off that while we were companioned, alone time would be essential for us both. I knew it would be crucial for me, as the preceding 20 years never left me without an uninvited companion or at least a demanding interruption every moment, not excluding trips to the bathroom. Sound familiar anyone? We would both need time to drop into meditative nothingness,… sheer walking bliss and an off the map kind of presence as we trudged along. When we were walking with full presence, we would connect with others as the pilgrim life generously offers all travelers if they wish and relish in the personalities with zest, that could only be found on this type of quest.
There is a quality of energy that can only be found on this path and it cannot fully be explained as it feels and resonates differently for everyone. But what effect it has creates a desire to keep going even when the body is clearly stating that it is time to stop. Some pilgrims arrive and shortly thereafter find themselves addicted, so much so that they walk this trek or every given Camino starting point many times over. Some make it their life’s mission to walk it indefinitely.
My most ardent desire was to literally “dump” all of my lifetimes worth of baggage along this journey and rebirth a lighter and freer new me. I walked and talked to myself incessantly,… forgiving every soul that had crossed me. I realized it was necessary to forgive some multiple times and the endless array of memory flashbacks was frighteningly acute.
I also wanted to hold a certain presence that can only be found in an unfettered life. Could I possibly hold the same focus of singularity that I was able to embrace by simply choosing to get up daily and just walk?
I am going to tell you the answer…. savoring the moments as fully as I did then,… one quest at a time. More to come!
Living Fully…. “Bucket List” style! Come on NASCAR!!!
Living Fully…. “Bucket List” style! Come on NASCAR!!!
When my life took a serious turn, swerved out of control then crashed and burned violently 6 years ago in a devastating end of the family I had lovingly and painstakingly created and nurtured, I was forced to take a very solemn internal assessment.
“What did I want to be when I grew up……. this time?” I had already dreamed the dream, fostered and fed that dream and birthed the reality of it with near impeccability. I was raised and groomed to be a “no-holds barred” mother, homemaker extraordinaire, homebirther, homeschooler, holistic health expert, gardener, organic chef, doting wife and partner, church volunteer and devotee, community outreach leader, ongoing student, and fitness advocate. Tall order…… yes? I was undaunted.
How do I dream again? How on earth would I know what I wanted when I had mastered the art of taking dictation from without and obediently ascribing? Did I even know what I wanted or how to listen to that part of myself anymore?
The only thing left to do was to do something I was afraid of. Yep, I had to stir myself up internally and step out onto the proverbial ledge… and leap! So I did! I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, with a highly reliable, ex-military jump expert attached to my backside, but jump I did….. with enthusiasm and glee! And “something” mighty powerful awoke within me….. my solar plexus gasped for air for the first time in over a decade and wailed a loud infant wail of “YES”!!! I AM ALIVE! I AM AWAKE! I AM BACK BABY AND I AM HERE TO STAY!!!
Shortly thereafter I made a log that would soon after be referred to as a “bucket list” made popular by a movie that shortly followed, and it would hold every adventure that somewhat awed or frightened me that I knew I must dare to take on.
Since that time I have skydived twice, rode an electric bull, sang public karaoke solo, danced on a bar, dropped backward into a zipline ride, parasailed in the gulf, flew shotgun in a helicopter, simulated skydive in a wind tunnel, ridden “bikeweek” on a motorcycle chopper, scuba dived, and most recently, rode an official NASCAR solo on the ride of my life!
As it is my desire to maintain the divine claim of living fully in my body, mind and spirit, I regularly expose myself to opportunities such as this. In all honesty, driving a NASCAR independent of a driving supervisor unnerved me immensely, which was exactly the point. This was grossly exacerbated by the fact that the security information video presented to all drivers that intended to take their lives into their own hands that day, was completely glitchy. It ended up being narrated by the “no-nonsense” well weathered staff member that spared us no details regarding the layout of the track, definitions of the major turns and markers, but managed to discuss how many ways we could flip our stock car and uncontrollably careen into the infamous wall. 
The handful of brave souls that had purchased the same “NASCAR Experience” that I had for that day were left vacant of pertinent safety details, and equally vacant expressions.
By the time they suited me up with the official helmet and gear, established radio control to the track boss and very efficiently strapped me into my driver seat to the point of constriction, I realized that I was beyond human help. As a matter of fact the dials displayed across the dash were indiscernible to me and there didn’t appear to be time to figure them out before I was sent out onto the foreign track ill prepared.
In that precise moment, all that I had gleaned from past knowing and experience became crystal clear…… I was Divinely supported by my steadfast Guidance that absolutely had my back and I had the distinct ability to “feel” my way through this insanely cool experience. So I shut out the world and eased into an acceleration and visceral thrill that every soul should have the opportunity to own. The track boss broke my silent world with brief but eager compliments and encouragement to move to the next band of speed. I smiled at his challenge and leaned more into the accelerator, howling at the rush of the vehicle underneath me. One round and I am cheering myself aloud….. a second round and I am mastering this thing,… rushing past another driver on the 3rd turn I take it up a notch and by the 4th rounding of the track I have grown a savvy new skin for this speed thing and I am owning it! I obediently dropped my speed at the end of my “personal NASCAR experience” and slowed into Pit Row flawlessly and brought my Jack Daniels mobile to a purring halt.
YES! This IS mindfulness! This is the experience of being fully embodied, alive in my skin and completely connected with my Solar Plexus and the desires that it’s wisdom reveals to me. This is what it is to live the life unlived and make it my own. And there is so much more to come! The hot air balloon ride has been scheduled for a warm May afternoon at sunset….. and then, who knows? What a life!
What life are you choosing and is that life worthy of you?
Dr Tatiana Irvin's Blog 