The button on my latest newsletter is accidentally linked to this page. Click above to listen to the post and click here to read it.
How are you? I hope your week is starting well. How is the spring showing up where you are? Are the blossoms popping on the trees where you live?
Here in Nice, France it’s been a little rainy and cool but very fresh and the new blossoms are making this already beautiful landscape even more breathtaking. I love this time of year because of the fresh air, newness, and rebirth that spring offers.
This weekend we found ourselves on an unexpected adventure. We had intentions to take a bus journey to visit La Turbie, a quaint village perched in the rocky and verdant cliffs overlooking the Ligurian sea. About an hour's bus ride away, Sen had read about La Turbie’s medieval village as well as some ancient Roman ruins and we thought it’d be cool to see. Plus, hidden away up there in those cliffs is supposed to be a boulangerie that serves the best baguette in the region. We had to go.
Before heading out on our bus journey, we decided to get an espresso at the quaint little café and boulangerie we used to live above a few years ago, the one that would wake us up every morning with the heavenly scent of freshly-baked croissants. Though we hadn’t been to this café for a few years, the owner still recognized us and we were able to catch up a little as I ordered our coffee.
One thing that I found so heart warming and incredibly human while we were sitting and enjoying our croissants and espresso, was how people (complete strangers, mind you) would come into the cafe, a small place of maybe 6 or seven tables, and upon entering, they’d address the entire café with a polite, “Bonjour, messieurs-dames.” They’d also offer a happy, “Au revoir!” as they were leaving, and on both occasions, everyone would stop their conversations at their table to respond.
I love this culture which often celebrates conscious connectivity as the default instead of indifferent individualism. I experience this phenomenon of addressing the room of people you’re entering or exiting in the doctor's office, on the bus, and even while standing in various states of undress in the locker room at the gym.
After our coffees, we walked to the bus stop to make our way to La Turbie but when our first bus blew by us without stopping (obviously didn’t get the memo on conscious connection) and our alternate bus didn’t stop where we had intended, we found ourselves exiting the bus in Monaco and decided by default that we’d spend the afternoon enjoying lunch and going to a rather fantastic little Zoo instead. Our original plans of blue-ribbon baguettes and Roman Ruins were dashed revealing a fantastic alternative of aperitifs and armadillos.
What a great lesson for life, right? I firmly believe in the practice of having an intention and direction in life and all our endeavors but not holding so firmly to them that you’re not present to the unforeseen opportunities that may arise along the way. I like to call that the cosmic chess game.
This story of missing our bus and ending up in Monaco illustrates one of the greatest principles of my work: as life’s unintentional circumstances occur, how do we maintain the kind of presence to see the hidden opportunities embedded in the situation? The part about people practicing conscious connection illustrates one of the greatest principles of Seneca’s work, namely how the quality of people’s lives is determined by the quality of their connections with others.
We were discussing both of these principles just the other day a fantastic Italian café very close to our son’s school (I know, the entire country is cobbled together with magical little cafés). How is it that the Italians make the best coffee?! Anyway, it’s common that I’ll drop off my son at school and then go there to enjoy a real cappuccino while writing in my journal and practicing my Italian in preparation for my Tucany yoga retreat later this year.
Well, the other day, Seneca and I were enjoying coffee together at our Italian café and savoring the warmth of a heart-felt conversation about our own personal growth and our relationship and how much both of those intersect with our work.
Our conversation reminded me how much I feel like my work of teaching meditation and yoga is really just me processing and learning what it means to be a happy and functional human being. In other words, I’m basically preaching what I’m practicing. Back in the day, sometimes upon entering my therapist’s office she would say, “I know what we are going to talk about today because you wrote about it in your newsletter.” Ha!
The conversation I had with Seneca in the Italian café that day was a real gift to be in many ways including helping me to clarify exactly what my intentions are for my work. My intention in my career is to offer yoga and meditation to help you live your extraordinary life. That means taking you from feeling unwell, tired, or achey in your body, to being able to go on that hike with abundant energy, practically leaping up the trail, feeling as alive as the wilderness around you. It means transforming from that old mental feeling of being exhausted, stressed, and limited to your most natural mind state of feeling full of calm and alert, full of optimism, possibilities, and creativity. It means going from feeling a lack of spiritual connection, from feeling that your existence is meaningless or ambiguous, to feeling a beautiful and tangible connection to all beings with a sense of awe and wonder.
In a phrase, really what I hope to do in my work is to help you savor your beautiful life.
Thank you for your part in supporting me in my work. It’s a true honor to be on this journey with you!
And I’m not the only one in the house who tries to help people discover the innate perfection within. Our conversation at the Italian café also turned to Seneca’s work. So what does Seneca do? Well, she’s the founder of a coaching and consulting firm that provides transformational group facilitation and 1:1 coaching to high-growth-potential women in the areas of leadership, impact, authentic confidence, creativity, and emotional thriving.
Incredible, right?
Seneca believes our relationships are one of the greatest vehicles for personal development and upward change on the planet. During our conversation, she mentioned how much she appreciates how much her work highlights the fact that our relationships are our superpowers and how much our quality of life hinges upon our relationships. Essentially, Seneca is a relationship ninja.
She’s all about helping women create deeper connections for greater success and joy in your life and to operate at a higher level for all aspects of your life. These deeper connections fulfill a greater sense of belonging, support, and take you from a feeling of reacting to and merely surviving life, to truly thriving in life.
Like metaphorical strangers popping into the café and immediately connecting with others, she helps people employ similar principles in every aspect of their lives to practice a life that flourishes at all levels.
Again, it’s about preaching what you practice. Seneca’s work has deepened our own relationship in so many ways. When we have conflict—cuz every relationship has conflict, though some may choose to respond or react to that conflict differently—we have learned to move through it and genuinely grow closer as a result rather than simply making peace or worse, drifting apart.
I know I’m a tad biased here but Seneca is pretty damn amazing. I really believe in who she is and what she is sharing with the world. I can’t tell you how many of her clients have stopped me when they see me so they can rave to ME about the work she’s done with them.
Because there is such a clear overlap in our desire to help people find a greater connection to the world by creating a greater connection to themselves, I want to let you in on what Seneca offers because she’s doing something really exciting in addition to her regular 1:1 coaching and consulting. This week, she’s launching a beta version of a 4-week course that will take place in May called The Extraordinary Connection Blueprint for Women, a course for cultivating greater success and joy in life through creating deeper and more meaningful relationships.
This course is all about creating extraordinary connections with others, so you can feel, be, and do what you came here for.
I’m immensely lucky to have Seneca as my soulmate, partner-in-crime, and wife. I’m so proud of what she’s created and I hope you’ll take a look at it.
At the end of the day, life is full of missed buses and unforeseen opportunities. It’s about learning to connect with others and savor the warmth of heart-felt connection as we evolve into our best selves.
Don’t miss this bus! Regardless of how you feel things have gone as planned for your life, perhaps this course is a revealed opportunity for you to explore the joy, contentment, and wellbeing inherent to your being.
Have a wonderful week and Namaste!