Being Our Best Selves
by Michela Pasquali
When I started coaching sessions with Jeffrey, I didn’t have a goal in mind. Our meetings evolved naturally, focused by Jeffrey’s keen interest in helping others grow spiritually, lean into positivity, and better the world. I’d always had an interest in and desire to deepen my spiritual connection – making yoga, meditation, and reading books by spiritual teachers part of my life for the last 20 years. But it wasn’t until I started working with Jeffrey that I saw a clear shift in my spiritual self. A move toward not only accepting who I am, but reveling in being my best self. Sometimes it’s tough. Other times, it’s wondrous and amazing. Always, it’s a revelation. Which is what makes it so cool. Jeffrey encouraged and inspired me to write about and share my path to being my best self – to help others make the journey. And he is super kind to post my stories here.
You can also find out more about me, along with my business and creative writing at:
https://twitter.com/MichelaABC
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelapasquali/

How to Create a Daily Practice of Letting Go
It’s easier than you think There are so many reasons for letting go of our fear, anxiety, and stress. One of the biggest is the amount of time we get back. What? It’s not all about getting rid of the icky anxiety? Shoving aside the painful fear? Or not having to deal with the frustrating and annoying stress? Aren’t those the biggest benefits? Well, yeah, they would be. If we let go. What we...

The Mind Sees (and Creates) Problems Everywhere
So what can we do about it? It’s easy to see the people around us in a binary way — as either friend or enemy, good or bad, right or wrong. Our mind always looks to understand the world and reduce it to the simplest possible terms. The mind perceives a problem (or creates one for us if a problem doesn’t exist in this moment — weird, right?) and tries to solve it. As quickly as it can. For the...

5 Ways Meditation Can Help You Build a Radiant Inner Life
And emanate that beauty outward We love spending time with the important people in our lives — our kids, our significant others, our friends. Pre-pandemic, many of us might have gone out for dinner, celebrated at birthday parties, or enjoyed concerts together. For the last year, maybe that turned into family movie nights, playing board games, or connecting on Zoom calls. But what about spending...

Difficult Relationships Tell Us a Lot About What We’re Resisting
Usually, it’s the ugly stuff we don’t want to deal with We accept our bodies change — get stronger with exercise, more tired as night approaches, older as the years pass. What’s harder to accept is that our minds and spirits change as well. And, importantly, those of the people around us do, too. All the time. My relationship with my sister has shifted. It makes me sad, but that’s the way it...

Every Moment Is a Choice
How will you create your life one tiny sliver of existence at a time? Every moment of every day, we have the opportunity to choose how we’re going to live our life. We can lean into fear. Or we can stretch toward love. We can choose to give into the thoughts and emotions that fill our days, dragging us along on their journeys of self-criticism, judgement, anxiety, scarcity, fear. Dwell...

Getting to Always
How to open up to a flowing energy of joy and peace I had a tough, few days recently when thoughts and emotions overwhelmed me. A fear-based idea would enter my mind and take me away with it. My son, my husband, a friend, would say something to me (or not say something to me) and I suddenly felt an emotion I didn’t want to feel and would push it away (but then get stuck ruminating about it)....

The Key to Happiness
Create it for yourself and accept you can’t create it for anyone else My son has this desire to see everyone around him happy. I think he gets it from me. It’s often little, easy things he can do to make the people in his life content. But, like me, he struggles with balancing these wishes with his own wellbeing. He’s sad, gets upset, feels guilty if one of his friends doesn’t like something...

Me First
Giving to yourself in the moment you need it brings joy like no other While grocery shopping this week, I did something I never do. I bought something spontaneously for myself. In the grocery store? Yes, in the grocery store. I often buy things in the spur of the moment for my husband or my son, something they would like or a treat I know would bring them joy. But I don’t do it for myself...

Impatience Is Fear
How living in the moment brings you closer to love I tend to jump into things. I have confidence in my abilities, yes, but I also have these permanent rose-colored glasses on, which means I believe wholeheartedly and without any doubt that everything’s going to work out well. It usually makes life a little more exciting and fun. Want to go skydiving? I’ve never tried it, but my answer would...

Rivers, Not Reservoirs
How changing your view of abundance can change your view of life Ever since I was little, I’ve felt this need, when the spotlight is on me, to deflect the attention and put it somewhere else. Partly it’s because I’m uncomfortable with the limelight. I’m ok with having the attention of one or two people in a conversation, but any more than that and I blush. I become suddenly aware people...