Following the Soul's Longings

How Saying Just One “YES” Changed My Life

3 years ago this month, I signed up for a funky little class at a local yoga studio lead by a shamanic practitioner. “What’s THAT?”, I wondered. It offered gentle guidance in embodied living, experiencing the seasons, and walking in greater harmony with the natural world. How weird could it possibly be?

I arrived awkward, nervous, and deeply curious.

After a full turn of the annual wheel, I became her teaching assistant that second September. Week by week, month by month, she showed me how to live in balance, hear my truth, and to heal.

From there, she extended an invitation to began training me in shamanic healing practices. “Who me?” I thought.

“You’re already on the path,” she responded.

My disbelieving mind said I can’t possibly do that… and then my soul said I must.

Suddenly I saw all the subtle (and not so subtle!) ways my life had been leading me towards a teacher who could help me REMEMBER. To remember my original medicine: who I am, who I always was, and who I came into this crazy life to become.

So I said yes, oh yes.

Last month, I completed my training, blessed by my teacher to begin the process of performing healing ceremonies on my own. Things I didn’t know I would find, or ever have the capacity to do… all with Spirit as my guide, and at the center of my life.

Because I listened to the nudge and took that first risk, mustered the courage to take that funky class… then just kept saying yes to every subsequent invitation my mentor gave me to go deeper, I have come home. Home to my ancient self, a person I never in my wildest dreams thought I could be.

Following that call has changed EVERYTHING about my life.

Upended it, brought me to my knees, and then put it all back together again… in the most magical way imaginable.

And now I’m here. Far, far off the safe and conventional path I’d once so carefully laid out for myself. Feeling more joy than I ever dared to imagine. Living the life I was meant for, in alignment with my soul’s purpose. It’s not perfect, nothing ever is. But the road I walk now is mine, in sharp contrast to the litany of “should’s” that once ruled my trajectory.

Catalyzed three years ago, when I said my first tentative yes to a thing. A thing that tugged at my heart, and also kinda freaked me out. (I’ve since learned that the best things for us will often scare us… at least a little!)

Humbled. Grateful. Awestruck.

With deep love and gratitude to my mentor and teacher, Heather Cole Gatto.

Want a partner to help explore YOUR soul’s longings?

The decision to work with a mentor was hands down the best gift I ever gave myself. I’m not sure if I would have pushed through the layers of fear, resistence, or doubt that have cropped up along the way without her steady presence. Change happens in stages, and in coaching we take it step by step. Together.

If you’d like a soul companion to walk beside you on your path, consider a complimentary call to see if working with me might be a fit. I’d love to make some magic together!