My world has been rocked too.
But we can GROW through what we GO through.

Life has presented me with some intimidating turns. Bad bosses, health crisis, divorces, and company restructuring, just to name a few.

But the biggest brink, the one that has you reading this page, happened in 2015.

I had a major birthday.  I was frozen in fear not because I was closer to ‘the end’,  but because I felt like I hadn’t gotten started. I wasn’t using all my potential. I did happy things but I did not feel happy inside. So, I made changes I thought would bring me fulfillment: I unplugged from an un-sparked marriage, attended a plethora of meditation retreats, and found a new job with more balanced work hours.  Though these were all forward steps, that hollow feeling crept back in. I had the sense there was something I was meant to do, but didn’t know what.  Worse, I feared that nothing would ever make me happy and yet I didn’t even know what I was unhappy about.

My chief coping style at the time was to beg myself to be satisfied with a routine life, to stop thinking the grass is always greener, that I didn’t need deeper relationships.  Basically, a harsh inner shut up and be happy.  It never worked, but I kept at it.

At the end of 2014, I plodded to California for yet another retreat. As I was looking over the retreat grounds, I heard an inner voice whisper “You can move here”. While that message persisted throughout the retreat,  I found the concept ridiculous and unnerving. I had no desire to move west, no reason to move west, and thought it was a great bucket list item for someone else’s life.

But by coincidence, a position opened up a few months later at a Los Angeles non-profit that I had volunteered with for 30 years. Despite a significant pay cut, I rented my house, quit my job, and moved 3000 miles across the country. I found housing with like minded people and got ready to reboot my life with meaningful work and inspiration.  Iwas ready to start a new life. 

Turns out, it was only a life style….that did not last.

The seminary life was not as I expected, and I moved out within a year.  The position I was in abruptly ended leaving some friendships strained. My boyfriend, who knew me better than anyone ever had, died unexpectedly.   My dream life had imploded. I was again, frozen.

Worst yet, I felt my inner guidance had failed me in a way it never had before. So on top of the crisis, I added a heap of self-judgment for making bad choices, for leaving my “comfortable” life. I had no idea how to move forward. I was on the brink.

Amidst my panic, I discovered the University of Santa Monica (USM) program in Spiritual Psychology. The program utilizes experiential education to assist people in awakening to their best self, while clearing the cobwebs of outdated false beliefs.  I saw that my current situation might be used to expand what was possible for myself.  There was no use feeling sorry for myself - everyone has major life crises.  The question of “Why me, why now?” lost it’s mournful cry, and became an expression of curiosity and wonder.

The skills I learned assisted me in reinventing my life and career.  I learned that my past - the good and the bad - put in context of a greater life and purpose, had served me well.  Patterns and fixed beliefs I perpetuated for years were undone without the trauma of having to relive them.   It was deep and hard work, but one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  I had access to skills I was never exposed to before. It was liberating. 

USM lead me to my first professional coaching experience which cemented becoming a coach as my obvious next step: I finally could put all my expertise as a therapist into use in a way that was focused on people’s strengths, potential and light.  I quickly found work as a spiritual counselor in hospice - coaching people through the most major change of all, and through word of mouth alone, began serving private clients or their companies through all the major transitions life can throw us.

In the end, Intuition had not failed me; no bad decisions or flippant choices were made.  It’s just the game plan was far better and had a few more steps than I anticipated.  And it required more courage and more willingness than I thought I had.

Sounds like a happy ending?  Not quite…I think of it as a happy beginning. 

That is what makes life amazing and what coaching is all about.  We are not finding THE ANSWER - because the answer changes with each decade, each new partnership, or each new job. We are simply moving the current crisis onto a Good Brink where it can be navigated away from the edge, all the while allowing you to build you power and creativity to soar over the gap.

The main reason I became a therapist was because I never wanted anyone to face their brinks alone.   And this belief still inspires my coaching today.  Life is a classroom, and it is perfectly okay to get the crib notes, hire a coach, and work with an expert in transformation.

You have your own story - as big and messy as mine. Let’s find the beauty and purpose hidden in yours.