Sometimes there has been a loss – the death of a parent, the end of a relationship, or moving from one way of doing work into another.

But this isn’t the case for everyone.

For some, it’s simply a subtle desire, a sense that the time is ripe to do more work. They see an opportunity to drop in and go deeper.

One of the biggest thing I do is help people develop their awareness. We need to notice what is shifting and changing before it will shift and change some more. This is really about unconditional acceptance for ourselves, and for what is. Everything is welcome. Nothing is judged.

We didn’t talk about this sort of thing growing up. Our parents didn’t know how to witness us and create this unconditional acceptance for us. So of course it makes sense that we get to a point in life where our stuff comes up again.

Once you have a witness as you do this, you begin to see how you can start to do this for yourself. Without needing to change or fix anything. After awhile, when I keep asking ‘What’s the one thing that can shift everything in a moment?’, you begin to internalize that as a way of relating to life, and acting from that place. That’s powerful.

The way I see it, it’s some part of them that knows. They are ready and willing . . . and it’s time. The universe just lines up; their higher self gets them here.

As a kid, I paid attention and did my best to anticipate what was coming. Because back then, that was the only tool I had. But as we get older and continue to do this, it exposes us to mushy boundaries, to other people ‘draining our energy’, or we can’t get clear about who we are.

So what we have to do is to call ourselves back into our core. And draw an energetic circle around our core, where other people can’t come in. Once we have created that circle and have learned how to maintain it, then we learn that all the information we need comes to us. We don’t need to go out looking.

So from my childhood, this has been my journey. I became a Reiki master almost 30 years ago. I studied with a Native American medicine woman, who taught me how to listen and hear the land, the elements, the trees. (Everyone can do this, by the way). I studied – and used to teach — energy work. I studied Feng Shui for 10 years with the Grandmaster who brought Feng Shui from China into the Western mainstream. I studied meditation in an ashram in India.

At the same time, I had this whole other life in retail and fashion. I worked for Nordstrom, where I was a top buyer, and went on to be an independent sales rep for women’s jewelry and clothing brands. For more than 30 years, this paid the bills and provided for my family as I raised three children by myself. It allowed me to be home and go on field trips with my kids.

But when that time came to an end – and my dad died in 2007, I made a decision: I was never going to do another thing that did not arise from within — from my heart . . . from my soul . . . from my belly. I would allow Life to live me. And go where each moment called me to go.

I became a hypnotherapist. I became a life coach. I continued studying and using energy work with my clients.

As this work continues to unfold, I have learned to trust that what shows up for a client in each moment is the perfect thing. That is where we work. Without judgment. And with total and unconditional acceptance. Whatever comes up is exactly where we need to be.

This work is practical and grounded, in that you see results in your life – you see and experience things shift and change. As one of my teachers once told me, “If it doesn’t grow corn, it has no value.” This means that energy work has to produce results, or we don’t do it.

And this work is not a magic wand. We meet in the field of possibilities, and shifts happen in their own wise time. If you’re paying attention and participating, you will see it and experience it as it shifts.