I can look back on my life, and there is a particular delineation - a line where I realise I was waking up.

This was at the early stages of meditation, yoga, healing, and intuitive classes. I had a moment where I realised that (too) many of the choices I'd made had been less conscious, more conditioned.

When we are children, we look to our families; we follow their rules, attend school, and participate in cultural and religious groups based on their guidance. I went along with a lot of this as a child because a lot of it suited me well. I attended piano lessons, thrived on a few sports teams, and enjoyed the youth group at my church. I made great friends and learned a lot about myself, my strengths, and my preferences.

When it came time to choose a university, my options were mountains or beach. I wasn't sure what to choose. And I remember thinking - my parents enjoyed their time at ASU, so I'll try that and see how it goes.

In the long run, I do believe that ASU was a great fit fo...

I've been speaking to a lot of people lately who have been working so hard to cope. They are trying to find ways to shut down their anger, fight their cravings, suppress sadness, so many manners of 'control' that only add to the stress and fatigue.

In our earliest years, we begin to create coping mechanisms to deal with whatever we cannot manage. When we feel overwhelmed we may distract ourselves, dissociate, or create pain in one aspect to pull us out of the pain of another. So much energy goes into creating these strategies, and while they may 'help' for awhile, they really only prevent us from finding a deeper alignment.

I wanted to share the idea that I have been meditating on lately - I no longer want the ability to cope within my current circumstances, or the paradigm I am in. I want to heal and evolve to match the next.

Take a moment to sit with that idea - that instead of treading water in the circumstances and choices that make you feel as though you are drowning, or being ...