Who Are You?

Who Are You?

 “Know Thyself” – Socrates

The better you know your Self, the more prepared you will be to take full responsibility for your mind, body and soul.

Once you witness the extent of your ability to command all aspects of yourself, you will see how empowered you are. When you no longer view yourself as a passive recipient of your life circumstances, your untapped potential will be clear to you.

Conditioning is the learning process that begins shortly after birth and is most intense in early childhood.

This is when you disconnect from a part of yourself in order to take on the expectations of your culture – certain beliefs, behaviors, desires and emotional reactions. It is also when you are introduced to the rules and pragmatism that will often limit you.

At this same time, as a consequence of both biological and environmental factors, your personality evolves.

The result of these developments is that you become cut off from the total capability of your authentic self. As you mature, the gap grows.

The transition period after I resigned from my position as a Managing Director in Wealth Management and before I formally launched my coaching business was both rewarding and revealing. There were instances when I was taken aback by the extent of my own conditioning. I would occasionally get a nagging feeling that something was missing. Later, I recognized that void to be a craving for accomplishments, goals and competition during a period I had excitedly set aside for chilling out! Was it my soul that wanted these distractions or was it my programming? Who was Ireally?

Your life is meant to be a unique experience.

It is thereby immeasurable. The pressure to conform to the expectations of your immediate tribe or society-at-large clouds its extraordinary nature. This is a collective issue that everyone faces, and it is the integral issue challenging us all.

I spend the majority of my time deconditioning clients.

Much of the conditioning you are exposed to concerns major aspects of life such as:

Health & Fitness Our society is obsessed with the superficial layer of health & fitness, which is physical appearance. There is little attention paid to the more crucial focus on mind,  body, and soul or preventative health. You become unbalanced and eventually unhealthy.

Money & Career Rampant consumerism and materialism have many of you working jobs that lack purpose for you so you can buy things you don’t truly want or need, but have been convinced you should have. Your spending and values often don’t line up. You wind up in a pattern of unintentional spending.

Love & Relationships From birth, society promotes the idea that you are not whole unless you are coupled. This creates enormous pressure and encourages you to make a major life decision based on lack. This approach can result in an unsatisfying outcome, as evidenced by our 40-50% divorce rate.

The effects of these social influences may, at some point, motivate you to journey back to Self in order to reconnect with your true nature.

Reuniting with yourself after many years of separation isn’t an easy thing to do, but the process is exciting and rewarding.

By utilizing my techniques grounded in applied positive psychology, holistic lifestyle, the power of intention and spiritual principles, my clients have been able to make shifts in their lives. Among these methods, the following are some of the most critical and effective practices for stepping away from your conditioning and finding you. You can easily implement them today.

Mindfulness Being mindful means being fully present – aware of where you are, what you’re doing and not reactive to what is going on around you. There’s no better way to go inside.

Although mindfulness has become a growing industry, it doesn’t need to feel exotic or distant.

Practices like meditation or yoga are optimal. If you can’t access them, you can practice mindful breathing, observation, nature immersion, and gratitude.

The benefits of mindfulness are cumulative. You may feel that not much is happening until you wake up one day and realize that your reactions have changed.

Eventually, you will receive insights, “eureka” moments, and intuitive guidance.

Flow In positive psychology, flow is known as being “in the zone.” This is a state in which you are so immersed in energized focus and enjoyment of an activity that you lose all sense of time.

Do what puts you in flow.

Adventure An adventure implies doing something that is new, unusual, and has an uncertain outcome. Socialization based on fear and linear thinking discourages you from approaching life as an adventure. It encourages you to live safely and follow conventional wisdom. Linear thinking helps you to stay on track and safe, but small.

You are here to have experiences – allow and enjoy them!

Working to shed your societal conditioning and incorporating mindfulness, flow, and adventure into your life will lead you back to your Self. This reconnection will give you the awareness to command your mind, body, and soul, and ultimately recognize your own power.

Only when you have grasped the depth of your own ability will you be able to realize your optimal lifestyle, relationship, health, career, and purpose.

The quality life you want can only be created by choices made from a vantage point where you know your Self.

You have so much untapped potential within you.  

Go for the quality life. 😉

Welcome to a Journey of Holistic Living & Wellness!

Welcome to a Journey of Holistic Living & Wellness!

Someone asked the Dalai Lama what surprised him about humanity the most. This was his response:

“Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”

Can you relate somewhat to the Dalai Lama’s observation?

As the first-born child of refugees and someone who later came to spend decades as a senior executive in highly demanding corporate environments, I can.

Both my childhood conditioning and professional experiences were goal-oriented. Goals imply the future. I’m intimately familiar with having practicalities overshadow my in-the-moment soul urges.

Happily, I’ve become equally familiar with allowing my in-the-moment soul urges to overshadow my practical concerns. 😉

Does the present moment inform your daily decisions? Or, are you proceeding based on an outdated version of yourself?

In order to truly thrive in all areas of your life, you need to achieve the present state the Dalai Lama refers to. It is only through there that you can access your intuition, creativity, and life force – the elements with which you create your life.

Living and working in Manhattan, I often found myself fully engaged in a pattern of moving towards future objectives while my soul urges were placed on hold. My life force, or light, was at times dimmed by the routine nature of modern life.

When you allow your light to be dimmed, your experience in every area of your life – mental, physical, and spiritual – reflects this back to you.

My own life went from amazing, to good, to “okay.” We are conditioned to believe that “okay” is good enough, to be satisfied with “okay” because things could be worse, to equate accepting “okay” with being mature.

As an idealist, I had never been one who was okay with “okay.”

A voice within said I could be living more brightly. I was guided to practice mindfulness and began to trust my feelings more. This led me to achieve greater well-being.

I eventually realized that nothing in life is separate and became completely holistic in my approach to life and wellness.

That same voice that whispered to me also exists within you, or you wouldn’t be reading this. There are no coincidences.

So, what exactly is a holistic approach to living?

  • Tapping into self-knowledge and trusting that YOU know what is best for you
  • Embracing your authentic self and the laws of nature
  • Living with purpose
  • Integrating your mind, body, and spirit

How do you begin the holistic journey?

  • Learn to shut down your mind
  • Eat intelligent food and clear all toxins (including people) from your life
  • Ignite your body’s own natural energy and healing abilities before seeking chemical interventions
  • Exalt your home by decluttering and having it reflect you
  • Optimize your perspective (what you think, you create)
  • Make intentional financial decisions
  • Seek purpose
  • Evaluate your life based on the state of your integrated rather than compartmentalized self
  • Harmonize your practical and spiritual needs and no longer measure your progress by a material yardstick

Practicing holistic living and wellness turns your light back on. I’m here to help you flip the switch.

My intention is to support the unique voice within you, inspire you, nudge you, give you tips, help increase your awareness, and cheer you on.

Let’s choose to live.