I Know What it Means to Live Out of Alignment.
I Did So For Close to Twenty-Five Years!
During that time in my life, my Wall Street career and busy life as a wife and mother of three looked great. I was on that “ideal path” so many of us are told we should aspire to be on. I even made time to run 5 miles every day…albeit at 4:30 in the morning.
But there was a catch. Or two. Or three.
I was tethered to work. I carried two phones and multiple beepers to remain available to everyone else’s needs but my own. Though I had a good income, I lived in constant fear of being without (sound familiar?). My need to exercise excessively, despite my repeated injuries, was a sign of the deep-rooted imbalance I felt in trying to hold on to a sense of control. In short, my life felt like a merry-go-round that had no exit ramp.
Somewhere deep in my heart, I knew that my life was out of alignment with my true values and what really mattered to me. It’s just that I was terrified of slowing down, hearing my true self, and not following what society dictates as “success”.
And that's when the practice of yoga began to transform my life. By giving myself permission to slow down, breathe and become more aware, I was able to tune into the subtle messages that my head, heart and body were sending.
Why?
Because through yoga I had finally found the pathway that allowed me to hear that inner voice – a voice that had been screaming at me and trying to get my attention for years to change, to be open, to see my own inner strength and the possibilities beyond the fear, to let go one breath at a time, to access that inner knowing and bring the practice of conscious choice off the Yoga mat and into my daily life.
I know that yoga not only gave me the strong, healthy body I love, but also the courage to finally listen to myself. That inner voice that could no longer be ignored or numbed. The voice that told me it was time to finally leave Wall Street and discover a life that was more aligned with what I truly valued – and I did.
Within 3 weeks of completing my yoga teacher certification training in 2004, I opened a small yoga studio, and my new life began. I have never looked back.
But yoga was just a beginning step for me – a foundational practice that opened my mind through my body, and started me on the process of looking inward.
Fully accessing my inner knowing came over time and through an additional modality: life coaching. As a process of self-inquiry, self-discovery, and personal alignment, becoming certified in both health and life coaching allowed me to probe even deeper into what I truly valued, who I was as a person, and what it was that I needed to do in order to live more consciously.
And, through a gradual and continuing process of exploration and education, I’ve broken free from many of my self-defeating patterns over the years. When I first started making these big life changes, people kept asking: what changed for me? How I had done it? How could they do it, too?
And you know what? I wanted to share it with them!
That’s when I realized that my life’s mission was to inspire others to slow down, listen to their own inner wisdom, and create a life that they love, whether through yoga like I had initially found, or through purposeful, targeted self-inquiry and accountability to real action through coaching.
There’s nothing more rewarding to me than helping people bring out and truly live their full potential, and that now drives everything I do.