Spark: Being Your Best Self
Ultimately, I am a "spiritual" teacher in that "spirit" means "breath" or simply, to be alive.
As a teacher, I aim to infuse joy, energy, and enthusiasm into all I do—into the mundane and magical present moment, the living, breathing, daily life we are all roaming in together.
I hope to inspire others to love themselves and become their absolute best selves.
I believe if you are your very best, you will naturally lift those around you with your buoyancy and courage.
It is simple common sense.
You being your best self ultimately allows you to serve many others.
You hating yourself, feeling sorry for yourself, and throwing yourself perpetual pity parties helps absolutely nobody, especially you.
You will accomplish little with a nasty, self-sabotaging voice inside your skull, and you will likely project your inner bitterness to nearly everyone you interact with on a regular basis.
Your energy is contagious. Negativity is polarizing.
Those with piss-poor attitudes, condescending tendencies, these magnets for misery are who I long to stare down and say, "Enough already. Step the f*ck up and get to work."
People not liking, forgiving, or believing in themselves affects us all. People who are insecure and massively overcompensating by being bullies affect us all.
The bitter and vile attitudes of others affect us in our daily lives. (Unless, of course, we are actively practicing mindfulness or meditation and are relatively unaffected by negativity around us.)
If you yourself have at one point experienced this state of inner loathing/anger/aggression/moping/down-in-the-dumps-Debbie-Downer status, don't worry. We've all been Negative Nancy's before.
But don't continue to live in that state of blah and angst and spew your unhappiness on the whole world, Nancy.
Assuming you are able (like I believe most of us are with effort), get the f*ck up and take accountability for your energy, emotions, and the way you affect the people around you.
Ultimately it is only you who is responsible for how you feel.
It is up to all of us to look within, be with each event as it arises, and choose what our reaction will be.
We cannot entirely control what happens in the external world, but we can and most certainly should accept accountability for our internal reality that we ultimately are responsible for building and maintaining.
As a teacher, I would like to offer tools to people to eradicate self-loathing and transform this energy into self-love.
I want to help people stay humble yet unshakable as they slowly journey down the path of taking big deep breaths and learning to be, at last, okay with themselves and mean it.
My advice?
Forgive yourself for your mistakes, as hard as that may be.
Make amends with all that is lingering in your mental, emotional, and physical bodies.
Be with what exists and be brave enough to just sit with reality and feel it without distraction, aversion, addiction, etc.
Examine your insecurities, fears, and clung-onto beliefs and dare to be vulnerable with yourself.
Know that you are enough, just the way you are.
Know that you deserve happiness and that it must first radiate from within you.
Know this is all much easier said than done.
Shake hands with yourself.
Be a friend to yourself.
Cheer up, buttercup.
Let go of thinking it is selfish or that you are unworthy of being your best self—to embody the very best you can be from the inside out.
You being okay with yourself will make it easier to place less importance on what others think, granting you security and inner stability that no one can take from you.
You learning to trust yourself at a visceral level will bring a natural, humble confidence and hopefully, a more relaxed state of being more receptive to going with the flow of an at-times erratic life.
Because you are operating from a calmer and more contented center, you will be more sustainable, replenished and able to spend your energy in dedication to others who may need you—your family, friends, co-workers, students, etc.
I hope to help people pick themselves up, cast aside doubts and fears of inadequacies, and embrace all the beauty and ability that already exists within them.
I believe that if we learn to love and become our best selves, we will better be able to love those around us and project true peace and compassion that expands from a place of inner acceptance and self-reliance.
Together we can celebrate being alive, divinely.
