“I am the one who gives you the freedom to choose whether you operate from truth and love, or from false obligation and duty.”

Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Over time, I’ve realized how deeply true this is—and how understanding yourself and committing to your Inner Work is the most meaningful work you can do in this lifetime. To me, it’s the work, and why I resonate so strongly with Alchemy as the Magnum Opus, or “The Great Work.” Doing my own Inner Work and supporting others on their journeys is what I know my purpose is.

Past lives sound like fantasy. And I’ll admit…I was a skeptic. Yet the human brain is capable of extraordinary things: vivid memories, intuition, and unconscious insights science is only beginning to understand.

For those who know me, it’s no surprise my faith and spirituality was once deeply committed to the Christian perspective. To this day, I still say “Amen” and “Mercy” as a default response to countless situations. There is much in Christianity that I love and believe to be the true; however, I now believe God to be too big for any one perspective to hold, and no Being as powerful as the Creator can be limited to one source of wisdom.

It would have been easy to slip into despair. And yes, at times you did. But even then, you chose to rise. You took charge of your transformation. You engaged not just with life, but with God and the Universe. You demanded truth, and you received it... even when it was hard to swallow. You showed up, in your own way, in your own time, at your own pace. You chose to keep walking toward what you knew was true.

Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a byproduct of the narratives we weave around our pain and how they shape our identity. Do you identify with suffering? Do you see yourself as the "Overcomer," the "Hero," the "Justice Warrior," or perhaps the "Noble Martyr"?

True healing begins with self-honesty. For me, that meant confronting numerous truths, some of which I'm still grappling with. So, when faced with the question, "Do you really want to unearth those buried issues?" I'd urge you to say yes.