What Brand is Your Transformation?

Theme song: Shanti/Ashtangi

Have you ever heard the term spiritual bypassing?

It's an awesome technique people like certified yoga teachers (ahem) can use to avoid their feelings.

Here's an example: "I'm not angry at my ex-husband; yoga teachers understand that anger is just a sign of feeling wounded."

Are you angry, or not? That's the question. If you are, what are you going to do about it?

The real answer is allow yourself to feel your anger, understand its true source, and discipline yourself to avoid acting out towards yourself or other people as you work through your feelings.

The truly "spiritual" person does not avoid feelings, but recognizes them as human and takes responsibility for them.

Do I recommend the spiritual bypass? Maybe in a pinch instead of screaming at the children or kicking the dog.

Otherwise, better to do the work and, little by little, free yourself to be the awesome person you already are.

The reason I brought up spiritual bypassing is because, just yesterday, I had a quietly beautiful breakthrough.

I realized that, while I had been believing that spirituality is supposed to "look and feel" a certain way, sort of like branding, that it actually looks and feels many ways.

When I separated from my husband and -- gasp -- realized what it would actually take to support myself and my children in San Francisco, I feared the hunt for money and a rat racey lifestyle would separate me from my spiritual life.

As JD Salinger writes in his short story, Teddy, “I mean it's very hard to meditate and live a spiritual life in America. People think you're a freak if you try to.”

I didn't know how I would sell myself and my services and stay true to my "freaky" spiritual self. I thought "business" and spirituality were incompatible -- that I would have to button up and buckle down to be a business success.

I have to admit, that the past two plus years have tested my faith and courage -- sometimes to the edge of my endurance. To tell you the truth, I expected it and I trained for it. For example, before I opened my business, I took 18 units at City College and worked part time (as well as cared for the children and conducted a romance).

School is my sweet spot, so I practiced for my business life by learning to work long, hard hours.

Then I dove into my business and just started breaking comfort zone after comfort zone until that has become a way of life for me.

Lately, though, I'd been getting a bit chubby. Now, I'm a woman who likes soft curves, so a little chub in all the right places is a good thing.

After two years sitting at a desk all the time, I was moving beyond pleasantly curved and into jeans that were cutting off my circulation.

To be honest, gobbling down sandwiches in front of my computer had also contributed, I now realize, to joint pain, fatigue, skin problems, and a small slew of other discomforts in addition to the tight jeans.

I like circulation as much as the next person, so I committed, as part of my "2014 is the Year of Love" resolution to relationships and self-care, to lose a bit of weight. I'll just say that I measure my own spirituality in part by how well I am willing to care for the body I live in.

But what to do?

My "brand" is the yoga brand. My brand is the whole, organic foods brand -- preferably hand-picked from my own garden.

Trouble is, I don't have a garden and I sometimes work 15 hour days, which doesn't leave all that much time for my nonexistent garden (good thing it doesn't exist!).

As many of you know, I eventually reached out to a member of my business networking group, Coach Kendra Cannoy, and asked her to do a trade with me -- I'd share the message of her 28 Days to Health cleanse with my peeps, and she'd share the cleanse itself with me.

Fast forward 28 days and I'm on the labyrinth near my home.

All of a sudden, I felt a rush of pride. I lost 10 pounds in 28 days, which is of course a major achievement. With Kendra's help and her products (organic, by the way), I had regained control of my health and made great progress towards combining my business life with appropriate self-care.

That is when I realized that spirituality doesn't have to look like incense, candles, and oms (though that's a great way for it to look). I thought of my networking group and I realized that I find growth and transformation all around me in the form of good people striving to reach their goals and live fully.

The cleanse not only helped my body, it showed me that I am well on my way to being a successful businesswoman who lives a spiritually inspired life.

Your Turn

What brand is your transformation?