Back from Living Outside

I have been experimenting with living outside since early May and this is the beginning of sharing what I have learned, what I have shed, and what I am creating now. It is amazing what can happen in the nothingness of having nothing to do. I am grateful for all of my guides that have been incredibly patient with me as I worked to balance out years of doing so much. I'm not saying that I'm done. There is much more to settle into but the path of peace is always close.

My intention for writing what is below and what is to come in the days and weeks ahead is to save you tons of time and money and energy by giving you shortcuts to being happy right where you are and to be present for the precious details of life. Tune into the blog whenever you get a chance as I will be sharing as the wind blows me to.

Monday Morning Meanderings will more than likely return next week. Thank you to Karen, Annie, and Kelly for writing during my sabbatical. I hope our community of writers continues so if any of you want to write on the blog, please let me know.

What does it mean to Live in Balance?
Thirteen years ago I took off my watch; turned off the television and the radio; canceled the newspaper; stopped eating meat, sugar, white flour, and caffeine; stopped worrying so much about what others think about me; and turned inward. That inward spiral took me on a path of wellness of mind, body, and spirit that carried me through the practices that many of us have explored: yoga, meditation, prayer, nutrition, chiropractic, life coaching, psychotherapy, Gestalt, peacemaking, diversity training, living with indigenous people, cran ial sacral therapy, writing, massage, aromatherapy, flower essences, breath work, chanting, drumming, acupuncture, reflexology, Reiki, Shamanism, crystals, herbs and other supplements, Feng Shui, decluttering, living green, clearing space, chakras, and much, much more. Classes, classes, classes – both taking and teaching and books, books, and more books. You name it, I tried it. I can feel a lot of you nodding your heads because you explored them too.

When I look back at that amazing journey of exploration, I am grateful for every step and a bit concerned about my obsessions of learning as much as I could as fast as I could. I realize now that I took my over-achieving, driven ways of being and transferred them from being a workaholic in corporate America to living as whole as possible. That is why about 8 years ago I began the long process of integrating what I had learned and experienced and stopped much of the seeking. The universe might say that I shifted from the model of the masculine to the feminine. Hundreds of books were given away and I began writing instead of reading. I stopped being so hard on myself and released the idea that I had to learn more, more, more. That led me to trusting what was already inside of me. That led me to loving myself, others, and life more right here, right now.

This is not to condemn any of those practices. Each of them expanded my awareness of life in beautiful ways. It has been a good journey.

The question that has been floating in my mind the past 5 years since I resigned from corporate America and slowly let go of my driven ways is this one: ‘What does balanced living really mean to me?’ I invite you to ask the same question.

I have journeyed down a thousand paths of what is at my Core and what is not. As part of that adventure, I got incredibly curious about what it is that really makes me and others tick and what it really takes to be able to be present in the moment. Through every step I have walked rings the truth of being here, now. All of my seeking and all of my learning led me back over and over to right here.

Meandering through my mind is how long and complicated I made the path. All of it valid? Yes. All of it necessary? No. I see now that I could have made it much simpler and much less expensive, both monetarily and energetically. But how? I will share what I have discovered and invite you to integrate what is right for you in the coming weeks. Here is a dose of what I will be offering.

In the seven years since I got certified as a life coach, I have been honored to sit in the presence of many people. The number one thing that people want is rest. That may not be obvious at first because they come most often with the request for more money, more energy, more love, and more time. It is only in the delving in that we discover that they are tired of doing so much that doesn’t restore them at their core. Many of us are living more for others and for what we believe the world wants from us than what we wish to give the world. Many of us are living unconsciously because we are running too fast to be more deeply aware and present for what is real. This is the world we live in even though the systems are shaking and much is shifting. We explore all we can get our hands on because we are looking for peace, joy, love, acceptance, compassion, and abundance. As long as we seeking those though, what we truly want stays slightly out of reach. We will have moments of them but to sustain them perhaps it is time for us to balance our striving with our sitting back and let them come to us in the present. Then we will have our rest within them.

Thanks so much for all of your support and visits in the physical and otherwise as I traveled. It feels so good to be back!

Life Coaching and Healing appointments are available this Friday morning if you are ready to discover the beauty of presence. No matter where you are on your path, I will meet you there and will travel to wherever you want to go. It is always an honor for me to be present with you. Thanks for being a part of this circle.

Love,
Dane
LifeCoachDane.com