IMG_9940

The Journey is the Destination. Follow Your Passion. Let Your Heart Lead.

THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION. FOLLOW YOUR PASSION. LET YOUR HEART LEAD.

My friends in SF used to say I was the woman who had nine lives because I would change roles and identities over and over again. I had a thirst for adventure and exploration just like my dad.😀

In fact, I had a spiritual awakening after my dad’s death in March of 2001. In that moment, I gave myself permission to live my life by following my bliss. I am grateful for my dad’s incredible spirit of adventure. He traveled to just about every country in the world. I am grateful for his death too which taught me how I didn’t want to die – filled with sadness and regrets.

I wanted to explore all that life had to offer. I started post- Georgetown University, climbing the ladders of corporate America as an advertising executive and soon thereafter a marketing executive.

I then transformed myself into an actor, being on stage, performing, singing and doing indie films all over SF.

I shifted into event planner for weddings, parties and social events. Then quickly jumped into night club promoting and created 1000-person undergrounds + went to Burning Man and just about every festival I could for 8 years!

I burned myself out from overstimulation, lack of sleep, drugs and alcohol, and ended up in Yoga. I went full steam ahead to become a yoga teacher and eventually became a Yoga Teacher Trainer with 10K hours of teaching.

This led me to energy work, reiki mastership, healing and shamanism. I went deep into alternative healing arts and became a plant medicine facilitator for over 8 years embodying that wisdom too.

I became a Mother! Woo hoo (that one I forever in this life shall be!).

Right now (in this moment), I’m living my purpose as a women’s empowerment coach, intuitive healer, breathwork facilitator and still using all the skills from the last 15 years.

As I write this I think F*CK YEAH what an amazing life I’ve lived. I always followed my bliss. And I have always excelled because I was in my passion.

Trust me, living has not always been FUN – I’ve had my dark-night-of-the-soul moments, but those have always been for my growth and more birthing.

I picked up a book about 10 years ago that said, “Wherever you go there you are.” I knew that the only relationship we truly have is the one with ourselves.

We are all here on this heroic human journey of self-realization to recognize our sovereign divinity as SOURCE CREATOR. We get to CHOOSE every single day how we’d like to LIVE our LIVES. Thank you Sophia for the gift of free-will.

If you live your life with passion, expansion and follow the stream of good feelings, you will always end up growing and evolving.

The JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION and there is no HOW TO MANUAL to get “somewhere”. Life is about LIVIN’ – in LOVE and PASSION. If you do this, you will support your evolution and that supports the whole.

😍😍😍
Are you with me?

credit-cards-you-trust-yourself

3 Steps to Develop Trust in Yourself

Trust is big word.

Do you know what it means?

In the dictionary it’s defined as a ‘firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.’

So I looked up the word, “belief”.

In the dictionary its defined as to ‘accept (something) as true; feel sure of the truth of.’

So trust can be defined as, “a firm acceptance of the truth in the reliability, ability, or strength of someone (ourselves or another) or something.”

When clients come to me for healing and coachign, they admit they have a hard time trusting themselves and others.

If looking at the above definition you might ponder, what in their lives created a wavering in their reliability, ability or strength?

I say, the belief in the ego experience.

Your beliefs systems are a product of your childhood environment. You accept the opinions and attitudes of your parents, childhood friends and society. You ingest behaviors.

The ego is an artificial sense of who you are. It’s an idea based on other people’s opinions. You begin to believe this is who you are and and then think of yourself in this way.

You have a hard time accepting the truth about yourself as a reliable, strong, and powerful creator.  Yet, your true essence is Love – limitless, boundless, and free.

You believe so deeply in this Ego identity that you cannot often see your True Self.

The ego in and of itself is neither good or bad; it just is. It’s a stage in our development that serves its purpose…it needs to be progressively shed in favor of the re-emergence of our true self from the mists of childhood. ~Shefali Tsabary, PhD.

You are now witnessing the societal collective egoic programs that have been running for a long, long time that say, “you are not enough”.

You are awakening and remembering the non-dual truth of Love, yet you live in the nature of dualism, ego and lack consciousness.

You are undergoing a big shift – understanding the Divinity in all things and seeing yourself in the other.

You are beginning to understand that you have the ability to bring God intelligence into manifest.

You are witnessing that you impact “the other” greatly and that you have this innate power and intelligence inside of you.

How can you step forward into trust?

Or as defined above, change your beliefs to become ‘firm in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of yourself and the other?

This brings me to the Yoga Sutras and the concept of Kriya Yoga.

Kriya Yoga is what is said to release our suffering that is rooted in self-ignorance (ego which keeps us separate) and lead us to Self-realization/God.

Kriya Yoga is also referred to as the concept of “skill in action”.

Creating “skill in action” has three steps.

These are 3 Steps that will help you develop trust in the other and yourself:

1) Discipline/Self-Purification/Heat/Body ” – Tapas = Strength

2) Self Study/Reflection/Mind – Svadhyaya   = Reliability

3) Devotion/Surrender to God/Soul – Isvara Pranidhana = Truth

 

You can become trusting of yourself when you do your inner work.

You can show yourself how to build strength in your body, by purifying and practicing and disciplining yourself. Through a physical practices like yoga, you can start to overcome the stories and beliefs of your limited mind.

When you self-reflect, you discover reliability through making conscious choices and closing the gap on your subconscious programs through self-awareness. Yoga has been defined as bringing the subconscious to the conscious and creating union. This way you take ownership for yourself and control the monkey mind. You become aware of our reactivity, judgments, and ego and become discerning and responsible.

When you surrender to a spiritual belief system that all is Divine, Love and in Perfect Order then you release a lot of the pain and suffering that feeds the Ego of separation. When you surrender to the beauty of all as equal under the eyes of God, then you can see the truth that Love flows through you as YOU.

This is a mind-body-spirit approach to developing trust in yourself and the other.

I will share a testimonial from a client who went through my Unleash the Priestess Within + Thrive integrative healing and coaching program.

This is what it feels like to develop trust in yourself!

I had no idea what to expect from this program, but I believed in Nicole and her ability to help me find whatever it was I was looking for. I needed a guide, someone who was spiritual but also successful and pragmatic in her approach to healing. I recognized all of my own potential and saw glimpses of who I could become, but felt as though I was somehow preventing myself from acting on this potential. Envisioning the life I could have made me happy, but I was depressed about feeling disconnected from the path that would guide me there. I was stuck and I needed help. My intentions for the program were vague: I wanted to be happy with my work, I wanted to accept myself as I am, and I wanted to get rid of my attachments to past experiences. Through my work with Nicole, these intentions became clear and powerful. Exploring what happiness means to me, who I am, and what experiences I was holding onto gave me a greater sense of self-awareness and a greater appreciation for the experiences of others as well. I am more accepting of myself, which naturally has led to a greater feeling of connection with and acceptance of the world around me. Once this was realized, everything else had a tendency to fall into place. This program was challenging, but I am left feeling proud of myself for taking a risk and investing in something that has essentially granted me freedom. I would recommend Nicole’s program to anyone who is looking to take back her power and move beyond whatever self-imposed barriers are keeping her from following the path that was meant for her. ~ Misa, Coaching Client

 

buddha-wallpapers-photos-pictures-zen-flowers

Self Realization: Yoga Beyond the Mat

Yoga is a path toward Self-Realization or seeing the truth of who we really are.

It’s a journey of awakening to our divine essence.  Through years of navigating various sacred and spiritual texts, philosophies and viewpoints, I’ve extrapolated that in essence all paths I’ve studied lead to the Yoga of Self-Realization and being at one with Source or God.

In that I realize the massive responsibility I have in teaching the totality of Yoga, not just the asana practice, but the entirety of its scientific study because it contains important keys to unlocking the mystery of our next phase of conscious evolution.

Yoga was designed to be a lifestyle that transcends the mat and informs the full spectrum of our journey toward higher consciousness.

Yoga graces us with self-reflective tools like listening, conscious breathing, inward gazing and rhythmic movement that entrains the mind.  This daily practice of introspection brings forth the focused concentration and meditation that we all are benefiting from on a larger scale. It’s an exciting time to see what is transpiring on the mat.

Yet what happens, when students leave the mat?

I’m finding that students do not have the tools to navigate all that has arisen from their limited 1.5hr practice.  There is a gap that needs to be bridged.  As students I encourage you to go beyond the mat and dive deeper into the philosophy and science of the Yoga Sutras or find a teacher that understands the deeper teachings of Yoga and take some privates.

As a teacher, I have a responsibility to impart my wisdom in Yoga’s intelligence beyond the physical asana practice off the mat. I need to educate my students and clients that Yoga is an integrative holistic medicine that heals energy, emotions, and mental traumas. It prevents and cures disease.

Every day I witness the mind-stuff (citta) arising in my own field of awareness and empathically experience this in my students.   The path for me can seem arduous sometimes when I recognize the complexity of human nature and all of its constituents – body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  Layer social dynamics on top of the individual’s path and I have an even more complicated exploration.  Yet I feel humbled and graced by the wisdom of God to be able to share my intelligence of this important practice.

We are in a pivotal phase of evolution and we need to dive deep into and uproot the shadowy unresolved unconscious behaviors and habits.I have begun to incorporate Shamanism (a powerful Self-Realization tool) Reiki (a Divine healing energy) and Sound Healing into my Yoga teachings. I’m offering them as a post-operative experience to help students deal with what’s arising on their mats.

Through these tools, I’ve discovered my ability to see beyond the veil of illusion and have gained the understanding of the true distinction between the Purusha (Soul) and Prakrati (Nature, body, mind).

Now is the time to go deep into the realm of trauma, the wounds of childhood, and the residue of ancestry to eradicate the patterns of behavior that keep us bound and constricted and in the past.

It’s our responsibility to forge new ways of relatedness with one another and with the world around us.

I encourage all my friends, family and students to join this journey into the unknown and to really see what is at the root cause of your suffering. I encourage you to explore the scripts that play behind the scenes and how the mind weaves new stories that don’t serve us if we don’t attend to understanding the scripts. It’s a wild web we weave.   The scripts many never disappear, but we can learn how to control our reactive behavior toward them.

Our job as spiritual warriors is not to avoid suffering or challenges or obstacles, but to embrace them as our teachers.

The path of Yoga is not about spiritually bypassing our ego either.  It’s about having a healthy relationship to our human self and all of its imperfections as a method of discovering the True Self again as God.

Yoga and Shamanism teaches us to recognize our experiences as opportunities to learn to love more deeply, beautifully and unconditionally.

I look forward to diving deeper with all of you on this journey of awakening through our shared experiences on and off the mat.