Coaches don't change lives; you do.

Just because you make a financial investment does not mean transformation will inevitably follow.

When people talk about doing The Work, that's not just reading the books and starting to follow all the like-minded people on social media (and comment on and share all the posts) and showing up for a weekly 1:1 or group call.

Even taking really good notes will not a rapid transformation make.

It's not about the money so much as it is about taking the receptivity of choosing the active posture of being a student in that context out into every other area of your life, while in an energetic field designed to accelerate your growth, expand your consciousness, and maximize on that amplified energy. (This may seem abstract but it's actually a really specific instruction for anyone who needs a guiding light.)

I have personally invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, thousands of hours of my time, and endless energy into working quite explicitly with many different teachers. I have been so totally devoted to spiritually unfolding, embodying emptiness and silence, and accessing deeper and deeper levels of liberation that it has taken utter precedence in my life. Literally nothing else is as important to me as my relationship to god.

There were years where that meant I was in thousands of dollars of debt because I needed to research who I became when I believed I had negative nothing, for my own spiritual growth (spoiler alert, it was in that era that I realized I had everything to give).

There was an era where I was involved in a cultish meditation community with questionable ethics and intentions because I wanted to know who I would become by being surrounded by and going all the way through it.

I've also spent years experimenting with my diet and lifestyle in that same vein out of an interest to research and research until I found out what was exactly right-sized for me in any given moment (which means that this research is still ongoing as I continue to change).

My living mantra is the only way out is through (and the fastest way forward is inward).

I'm a perpetual student in literally everything in my life.

And I, personally, happen to find that I grow more quickly in containers where I can go through a process of studying something deeply with a dedicated teacher, identifying with it totally, and then letting it go.

Liberation is my prerogative and in my experience total identification eventually leads to disidentification and non-attachment, which feels deeply spiritually exalting for me.

But on top of that — and this is important — I really live my life. I don't just talk about it here on social media. When something comes alive in me with my guru or one of my teachers or even a frustrating interaction with a neighbor or a random passing with a stranger on the street, I take that thing and I apply it to every single other nuanced thing in my life until I exhaust its meaning and it dissolves. I put the lens on completely and I apply the teaching to my relationships, to my career, to my home, to the way I travel, to the way I sit still, to the way I eat, to the way I move, to how I dress, to my creative process, to my writing, etc...

I let myself be entirely changed if that's what's required in order to fully integrate it.

And I think this is the key thing, which is just a simple mindset hack: I would rather change than not. I would rather wake up tomorrow morning and — as a direct result of having a deeply intimate relationship with my intuition — dramatically change the course of my life in a moment's notice, than spend even an iota of energy trying to maintain some semblance of routine.

I don't actually feel like I have a choice about this now. If I don't listen to my intuition, which is always guiding me toward a deeper relationship with source, I get sick. It's almost immediate.

And being devoted to love is unrelenting.

In that sense it should come with a disclaimer, but it doesn't for so many really important reasons. Because those of us who get the call will go for it, disclaimer or not. We will make the conscious choice to totally unravel our lives if that's what's needed. Or, our lives will totally unravel and that will be the very thing that puts us squarely on our path and we will be in immense gratitude about it.

Those of us who know, know. Those of us who are ready will seek it out (whether we're aware of that seeking, or not). When the student is ready, the master appears. If you're not consciously seeking but your life is LOUD with opportunities to become more resilient and agile and receptive, consider that your cue that you're seeking it.

And, this level of intensity is not everyone's path. Everyone would surely benefit from inner work. SURELY. LIKE VERY MUCH A LOT. (I have strong opinions about how different the world would be only one generation from now if every parent had some basic Emotional Intelligence training, which is my main drive for doing what I do professionally, but that's a post for another time).