I bet you can give me the yearbook stats on that one pronto (!) but I am confident that you would be surprised at the true answer to that question. How can I make that statement with confidence? I see it again and again.

Here is what is the absolute norm. Someone gets referred to, or calls, me because she is tired of things in her life feeling just “off”, frustrating and very hard to change. Sometimes she is trying to figure out how to avoid or get off prescription medications for anxiety, depression, or insomnia. Often he or she comes wanting to achieve an ideal body weight. These are actually beautiful admirable goals that I heartily support. However underneath them is where it gets really REALLY fascinating and good.

When I speak with you as my client, it is my primary business to be AWARE of everything about you. I see your physical body, and it tells me things. I see your movements, gestures, expressions and even your energy. I notice what is behind your words, what those words point to, what gets repeated in slightly different ways. I see the outside and yet look past that and see the inside depths.

It is perhaps a seeing that you have never experienced before. I cast my spell of attention on you and the result is “exquisite attention.” And the power of this exquisite attention alone, without anything else, is a giant transformative shift. I have yet to see it not affect a person powerfully.

You see, I hear your words, yes, but they are a very incomplete picture of the YOU that is YOU. And with my exquisite attention we can release powerful old energy patterns that held you captive, maybe for a long period of time, sometimes a lifetime.

It is not at all uncommon for a person to come to me with quite a serious struggle going on (I can’t do this anymore, I feel like i want to end my life, I can’t stop using these prescriptions, etc) and have a single session. When we meet for session 2, I am understandably very eager to hear if they had any progress or if they are “okay.” Often they show up wanting to work on some much lighter issue like eating, or how to fix a relationship. It is as if they had forgotten all about the depth and agony of the original complaint. I might ask them, how is that ______ going? To which they respond, “Oh that? that’s not bothering me but I do want to work on how to exercise more.” (for example). The ability for a person to be made so much lighter just by a deep attention, insight and a few directional tips never ceases to boggle my mind…and, of course, delight me!

You see, you and I are living walking, breathing collections of beliefs that we have picked up along the way (old energy patterns that do not belong to us). These feel very US because they have taken up squatting rights inside our physical bodies, often for many many years. However they rob us of joy, passion, zest, vibrancy, creativity, and happiness. And we just wonder why we can’t muster the will-power to live better. It must be some personal flaw we have that we are not “better” right?

I have one extremely wealthy, powerful client who, on the outside would appear as not having a problem, in the world. We have worked together for over a year now. The money, the power, the prestige, did not suffice for being disconnected with himself. He was describing some things that go on in his family and in his office. When I commented that I wish they would come and do this work his response was…EVERYONE should be so lucky as to do this work It is the only way to freedom.

If you have lived more than three or four decades you are beginning to realize that most things can be traced back to you. The gray areas become broader and the black and whites narrower. You realize that the number of years you have on this planet are, in fact, finite, and the goal is likely way different than you started out thinking. Knowing yourself may sound cliché but unless you can dredge the depths of that question. you will limit what your outcome can be in this lifetime.

Let me be perfectly clear. Answering that question has nothing at all to do with the roles you play. If you took away every description of what you “do” each day and had to tell me who you were, what would you come up with? What has shaped you? What wounds still dictate your behavior and perception of life? What causes you deep joy? Can you give name to your emotions? What is your chief aim in this lifetime? Have you ever accessed the repressed subconscious memories of your childhood?

Do you want to age like a badass? Do you want to change your body? Do you want to avoid disease? Do you want to heal a current disease? (If so, I’m applauding!) Answering this question will open the door to that happening. The body pays its own EXQUISITE ATTENTION to what is going on in your mind (consious or unconscious) and responds with more life or more decline.

Beloved, you get to choose. Do you want to discover or delay?