Being an athlete was a major part of my identity until that disappeared after a nasty knee injury in college. It didn't help that I was bombing my 200+ student lectures. Too much social life, not enough studying. At the time, I lacked the self-awareness, discipline, tools, and drive to identify and make the necessary lifestyle changes to achieve my goals. So, I transferred back closer to home, had knee surgery, and felt like I’d fallen back to square one.

 

What I didn’t know, was that the falling would continue a little more before it swung back up. My father, the rock of the family, had a heart attack. He survived and recovered, but life was never the same: we all changed deeply and for the good.

 

I learned that challenges aren’t always what they seem, and that they often contain a far greater good. Confronted with some serious things in life that “weren’t going according to plan,” my plan, I grappled for answers and found the knowledge of life and the universe I had acquired to that point was – useless. It was a huge dose of things deeply impacting me that were beyond my direct control.

 

It was spiritual journey time, thanks to food…yes, food. As my father began cutting out unhealthy foods, I joined him, and saw the weight I’d gained after my injury, disappear. And, it felt good to be in control, disciplined. I choose what I would or would not eat. It was such a high, such a deep and real pleasure to be in the driver’s seat in my own life for the first time. I wanted more, and I wanted to know why it worked.

 

I asked, read, explored, tried, discussed, and journeyed talking universe, soul, meaning, and purpose with everyone and anyone I could find. I was taking the unknown path unfolding before me, unsure where it was leading me, but certain I needed and wanted to know.

 

Eventually landing in Israel for a travel and volunteer program from the year, I met spiritual people who lived in the world, not the mountains. People with bills who changed diapers and drove cars, not meditated in centers. It was an introduction to my own heritage and roots: ancient spiritual truths and wisdom for living I never knew it possessed. No one ever taught it to me.

 

It would take years of learning, living, and further self-exploration to integrate it all and make it a part of me. After all, put on my oxygen mask and then others' – heal my Inner Child and build up my emotional validation, then help others. And then formal training in counseling to further my understanding and be able to share it with others, using it to guide, support, and move others. It’s an honor to help people on their own journeys to find themselves, change their stories, break out of old patterns, reclaim control over their lives, find confidence and happiness, and transform all of their relationships.