By lisa k tran on
I’ve noted that on the path of self realization, things that are new, the ones that hold the bright light of truth, those stunning moments of clarity, the things that are full of beauty or power…they can be quite fragile. Snowflakes that melt upon a hot finger.
You come across some stunning personal truth, a realization that is enormous, like a powerful dream you know you cannot forget. But the alarm goes off and you dash out the door. And then, life continues, and you slide back to your old ways. It’s painful when you fall off the wagon, knocked off the great viewing station. Continue reading “Fragile Discoveries of the Self”
Posted in Change, Truth |
By lisa k tran on
A true entrepreneur, Steve Jobs advised us well on how to truly live:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Posted in Uncategorized |
By lisa k tran on
I have been relearning the definition of “boundaries.” It’s one of those funny words that has a collection of socialized confusion around it. Most people don’t like the word. I didn’t. To me, it meant restriction, wrong-doing, aggression, conflict. Think of dividers like the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China, and barbed wire fences. We humans tend towards aggression when it’s time to set our boundaries. The word itself has a definition that is a little more neutral: “A line that marks the limits of an area.”
Now though, my boundaries are more like those solid yet gentle old English stone walls. You can be invited to easily cross over them, but they firmly mark my space. My boundaries are no longer permanent but movable and experimental. And I’m constantly experimenting with these stones, moving them closer in and farther out as needed. But this stone wall metaphor reminds me to create boundaries with calmness yet firmness.
Boundaries now are about personal respect, clear communication, and freedom. When I create comfortable boundaries for myself, I have the space to freely move, act, be. The right personal boundary is actually a part of clear communication and personal expression, because it gives me breathing room to know what I feel and want. Continue reading “Boundaries That Set You Free”
Posted in Flow | Tagged boundaries, clarity, communication |
By lisa k tran on
I’ve been spending most of this year training with Koelle Simpson to bring horses into my coaching practice, an innovative method called Equus Coaching. I thought it was time to share my experience and deep passion for these four-legged teachers.
At its core, equus coaching blends equine psychology with coaching practices. Koelle has been masterful at combining these two worlds to let Nature lead us back to our true nature. Horses, as herd and prey animals, have a Way of being that is curiously aligned with philosophies like Taoism and Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of Flow. Continue reading “Wild for Horses”
Posted in Energy, Equus Coaching, Flow |
By lisa k tran on
I’ve got LIFE on the brain. Yesterday would have been my sister’s birthday. This afternoon, I sat and watched a neighbor say goodbye to the love of her life. He had passed away in the night. Joe was only 56. Just two days ago, a friend asked me over a ridiculously nice dinner, “Why do you do what you do? What makes you tick?” It made me think a little bit…and this weekend confirmed my answer.
I spent my entire childhood in total survival, and I have watched some of my favorite people die. And so I have this enormous desire — all I want to do is live. More than live, I want to THRIVE. And nothing gives me more pleasure than to see others try the same. You and I will die. But I want to see us thrive first, and have the most amazing, ridiculously beautiful time at it.
Here’s what I know for certain. If you only live for the rainbows, the happy moments, the bliss, the wins and successes, the vacations and holidays, the romance…you are really going to miss out on the rest of your life. Life is ALL of it. It’s in the dark moments, the grief, the failures, the embarrassments and anxieties, the confusion…it’s in those moments that if you learn to lean into them, you will find immense treasures. Don’t avoid your life, any of it. Take it all on. Continue reading “Booyah to ALL of it: the secret to flow”
Posted in Change, Entrepreneurship, Flow, Freedom |
By lisa k tran on
There are times in life when you are neither here nor there. It’s a time of in-between, when things are extremely undefined. A time when your mind absolutely loves to freak out. Why? Because your mind wants certainty. It wants to know — Why, How Come, What For, When?!
These times may come when you’re transitioning between ideas, jobs, relationships, towns. Likely, you’re headed towards a goal but you had to take some kind of blind leap. It’s an in-between of situations A and B. It’s in that liminal period when the lights go dark, the stress pressures heat up, and it feels as if a vast and endless abyss is right under your feet.
These are the times when I remind myself I’m on a bridge. I’m no longer over here, but I’m not yet over there. My biggest goals during bridge time are: Continue reading “What to do when you’re on a bridge, the in-betweens in life”
Posted in Change, Flow |
By lisa k tran on
I just read
an incredible post on the Huff by a fellow journey-woman, MeiMei Fox, who described our recent adventures at
Summit at Sea in a way that I could entirely relate. She was writing my story: replace father’s incarceration with sister’s death, and maybe we have slightly parallel lives.
It made me realize something. I’ve been open in my writings, yes, but not entirely forthright, not fully present. Because I am not only a soul searching entrepreneurial meditating coach — I am also an explosive lover of life who can have fun like she’s 21 (I’m actually more fun and some might think more crazy now than at 21), and I have done some really audacious things to enjoy my experience. MeiMei verbalized for me what I’ve been hypothesizing ever since my feet touched the sands of the playa at Burning Man. Spirituality can be Hot. It can be full of flavor, wildness, and FUN. In fact, that’s living without holding back…which is the entire reason I dive into spirit. Continue reading “Let’s Get Real.”
Posted in Freedom, Truth |
By lisa k tran on
Make it a practice to challenge your mind, because your mind is the place where all limits are set. Treat your thoughts and beliefs as curiosities and stay damn curious. I am humbled, over and over, by the experiences that shape my life and stretch my perception. And I get into plenty of trouble when I am absolutely, one thousand percent certain…of anything. Because all thoughts, all beliefs, all limits, are meant to be stretched, questioned, pushed, and expanded.
Sit in the stillness of the field.
This is where I go to meditate. I close my eyes, and I go to a place with a big tree, and a great field. Sometimes it’s a field in a desert, sometimes the field is bucolic or very Avatar. It is always still. I sit within this dreamscape and meditate.
Continue reading “Practicing Jedi Mind”
Posted in Meditation, Truth |
By lisa k tran on
Tonight, at the end of my 5 Rhythms dance practice, a powerful moving meditation, I came to realize that I had surrendered, in dance, with deep love and trust.
Surrender had always been a dirty word, because my victim usually lives in my act of surrendering. I surrender only at the end, when I’m exhausted, humiliated, hurting, frustrated, fried, bewildered, lost. The controlling ego within me snarls and cries out at the idea of surrendering, giving up, being a victim. It wants to fight, not give in. It wants to resist, with its amazing might. And so I hold out, until I can no longer.
But love, love asks us to surrender to the flow of the current, the movements of emotions, the push of the tides. Love wants me to lean in to unknown spaces, to lean forward, with my honeyed and abrasive emotions, lean in as if the gravity of love were at my back. Continue reading “Just Turn It Into A Dance”
Posted in Flow, Love, Meditation |
By lisa k tran on
Yesterday morning, I went to the cliffs to stretch my being and enter Nature’s embrace. A storm was brewing, and the ocean was starting to initiate some rough housing with the rocks. I had thought about going to the gentler bayside, but realized that while there are moments to be calm and serene, life is better found at the edge of the cliffs. Plenty of signs and railings to keep you from tumbling over. Continue reading “Ocean Contemplation”
Posted in Uncategorized |
