When we've been walking down a different path for a long time, we sometimes forget how far we've come.
The same way it sometimes feels like we've blinked and 10 years just flew by. Poof!
Ever had that feeling?
Today I was able to connect with a friend who saw one of my posts and was suspicious about how I could honestly claim to teach such a subjective experience: understanding and accessing one's intuition.
Being constantly bombarded by influencers and snake oil salesmen promising to solve whatever problem the algorithm shares with ad buyers can make any one suspicious. Even cynical.
So here's someone he knows and trusts, seemingly doing the same thing on social media... thankfully, instead of jumping to judgement, he leaned into curiosity.
Talking to him I realized I've done a very poor job of explaining how I actually learned these skills I'm teaching, and why I think it matters more than ever in our crazy world. It's honestly hard to think of where to begin...
Growing up, I saw my mom overcome every health issue she had with diet and exercise. To this day, she proudly proclaims, "impossible is not in my dictionary!" Don't bother letting her know it should be "vocabulary" instead of "dictionary" because she will likely not care and forget right after you tell her.
Her tenacity and creativity is what made it possible for her to raise two hard-headed rebellious kids as a single mom in Miami, with her entire family still living in Brazil.
As much as I admire her today, I can only see all her gifts and the inspiration that she can be thanks to a decade of therapy and personal growth. To put it nicely, our relationship was not an easy one.
I longed for a "normal" mom who was nurturing, gentle, and supportive. But my mom never had that kind of mom, and she did what most of us do: parented exactly the way she was parented. Lots of criticism, tough love, and chancletas flying across the room when a belt was not readily available.
This in turn brought out my own toughness and rebellious nature. I hated authority and often did the exact opposite of what was expected of me, while smiling politely and finding the loopholes in any given circumstance.
So when it came time for me to "grow up" and go to college, I became a bartender. By 23, I was already bored of partying until sunrise and bottomless mimosa brunches, and I wondered, "is this really it?"
My Mr. Right turned out to not be right for me, and I was lucky enough to experience what most people feel during a "mid-life crisis."
I turned to free sunrise yoga, and learned about the power of the breath. I dated the yoga teacher for a minute, and learned about massage and acupuncture: two professions I had never considered.
I signed up for acupuncture school and learned the foundations of 5 element theory and Chinese styles of massage before dropping out to stay in the massage school that would allow me to quit bartending in a year (as opposed to the 4-6 years I would need to study to become an acupuncturist).
By 2010, I was licensed and excited to learn everything I could about the human body and psyche.
By 2011, I had also become a certified permaculture designer and certified BodyTalk practitioner.
Now, impossible was also "not in my dictionary."
I had discovered that real, tangible solutions to some of the worlds most pressing problems, on the macro scale via permaculture, and on the micro scale through BodyTalk and yoga. BodyTalk calls intuition one's Innate Wisdom, and that was the first time I learned that you could literally ask the body yes/no questions, and get a direct response via muscle testing.
Massage was my day job that allowed me to write off all these certifications as business expenses, while also freeing up enough time for me to volunteer with a local non-profit, Fertile Earth Foundation.
I listened to my Innate Wisdom and the path continued to unwind in ways that still amaze me today. I met some of my best friends to this day through Fertile Earth, and alternated my legally required continuing education between more allopathic modalities like medical/neuromuscular massage, and alternative modalities like Reiki and aromatherapy.
By 2016, I was ready to pivot again after noticing a surprising pattern in my massage clients: many (like me in 2009) did not know how to relax or breathe properly. So I made my first attempt at an online business as the Relaxation Coach.
While doing a 1:1 coaching training, I discovered a new layer of somatic intelligence: feeling that yes/no answer internally without muscle testing or the pendulum I had learned to use for tapping into my Innate Wisdom.
In 2020, all my knowledge would be put to the test when I got pregnant a month before the pandemic shutdown.
Motherhood is already the ultimate trial by fire, and when I had to move back in with my mom while we renovated our first home in 2023, let's just say mom and I both failed that stress test.
In the year of being forced to squeeze my life into one bedroom with my toddler and husband while 90% of our things were in storage, I felt so lost, anxious/depressed, and completely disoriented.
I fell prey to marketing tricks and bought products naively hoping they would make me feel better, and had even forgotten how to breathe properly.
There are no words to describe the joy I felt when we were able to finally move into our house, and I unpacked my box of essential oils and herbs. Each jar eliciting a little yelp of glee as I joyfully reconnected to their fragrant medicines.
I was coming back home to myself. Like Celine Dion, it was all coming back to me. Before 2020, I could only relax in a relaxed setting - which was an improvement from not being able to do even that.
Now, I can rest in my inner calm while the world screams around me, more often than not. I can confront the discomfort head on, rather than always needing to remove it from my life. I accept all my imperfections with a new layer of unconditional love, and course correct mistakes in days rather than months or years.
So why intuition?
Because in all of this, every time I listened to that internal yes, things got better. When I felt that no in my body and ignored it, things got worse.
I was swimming in so much unfamiliar territory for 5 years, that I had began to doubt the inner knowing I had learned about but wasn't trusting. Even in the moments when I felt it, the courage to act on that somatic wisdom had run dry, beaten out of me by half a decade of back-to-back major life changes.
Now the question is how...
How do organize the 20 years of personal transformation and professional experience into valuable offerings, products, and services that can actually help others, remotely, across the space / time continuum, and in a way that is both accessible to all and supports me financially?
That's the part you get to decide dear reader. After all, I'm doing it all for you. Which of these would you like some support with:
- Do deep breathing exercises ever trigger more anxiety or make you feel dizzy/light-headed?
- Do you struggle to relax your body, especially at night to go to sleep? How about your thoughts?
- Do you feel like you suck at meditation, but still wish you could actually reap the benefits without having to sit still for 20 minutes to an hour?
- Are you curious about composting, and want help starting a composting system at home?
- Maybe you've been suffering with some kind of chronic condition - whether that's pet or food allergies, or an autoimmune disease - and you're tired of the mainstream medical options that are not really working, but you also have no idea where to look in the "alternative" world for solutions?
- Struggling with self-doubt, seconding guessing every decision you make or needing to ask 15 people their opinion after a late night Google rabbit hole only to remain undecided?
- Or maybe you just need an ear that will actually listen, and reflect back to you what you already know, in a loving a supportive way.
- Other.
Pick a number and reply if any resonate with you. For numbers 1-4, I already have digital products that I will happily send as a thank you.
If you'd like some deeper support with numbers 5, 6, or 7, my gift to you is a one hour 1:1 session for only $45.
May this lengthy letter have found you at the exact time you needed it, and hopefully given you a dose of the metaphorical medicine you needed.
Love,
Pri
This 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
If you're curious, the above address is just an automated anti-spam feature. I'm still in Miami, but this newsletter software says using a real address here is best, and I didn't want to use my home address.
Feeling like this doesn't resonate at all, no worries. You do you boo, and we'll cross paths again when the time is right :-)
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