When I was leaving India in the summer of 2014, my auto rickshaw driver said the most profound words perhaps anyone has ever said to me, “Be who you are.” It wasn’t until our last day when we really bonded. I was telling him some of my reasons for coming to India and he was so impressed. Never in his life had he heard such a story of hope and though he never judged me as another tourist, I was honestly, yes, just another tourist he comes across regularly.
“Here, monkey, monkey, monkey! Nice, monkey!”
Monkey Temple in Jaipur
A recent brain injury survivor, I had just traveled the world for the 3rd time in my life and healed myself in my own intuitive ways while following my own heart despite everything everyone else warned me against. I proved everyone wrong and I did it my way!
From infancy, we’re told how to do something and when to do it and we’re punished when we don’t do what we’re told. In our fast-paced society today, we’re told to plan, organize, strategize, or predict when it comes to making choices in our daily lives. It’s really amazing to me that we’re never encouraged to follow our hearts. Somewhere along my spiritual quest over the last two decades, I stumbled upon this earth-shattering epiphany and it has changed my whole outlook at the world and how I personally live my life every day.
Since following my heart, I spent four transformative years living in NY; traveled to 20 countries; and reached other dreams I never thought possible. Life wasn’t without its challenges in these years but it is how I overcame them that is a testament to my spiritual growth. It might sound trite, cliche or easy to follow our hearts, but what I personally experienced was none of these things and nothing I could have ever imagined. I found out that life comes in random, different flavors. Some days are sweet and some days are sour. There are days when following my heart feels as if I may be hurting someone else. There are days when I feel as if I’m the only one on this path and it feels really lonely, and when I feel like giving up, I follow my heart still because it is my best compass in those confusing times. There are days when I can’t believe I’m meeting yet another person who doesn’t know how to follow their heart! “Is it an epidemic?” I ask myself. “Or is it the norm?”
Never in my wildest dream did I ever imagine I would wrap a cobra (albeit its venom but still…) around myself!
Monkey Temple in Jaipur
I was that kid in school that was different from everyone else and that no one else really knew what to do with. I never fit in anywhere. I didn’t think like everyone else! I didn’t talk like them either. As I grew older, it dawned on me that I was more of an anomaly than I had realized! Everywhere I was turning, the messages I kept being force fed with were subliminally telling me not to be myself but to be another robot in society. I was being churned into one too but I woke up in time and started following my heart, and that has been my saving grace.
Now in my 40’s, I’m not the person I thought I was. I’m not where I thought I would be but I am exactly where I had imagined I would be. And at last, I am accepting and celebrating who I am and all the heavenly rewards with following my heart! I want to show the rest of the world that it’s possible to have an amazing and prosperous life by following our hearts.
The space intentionally created here is to honor all those parts of myself that were told “no” or “wrong” or “bad” because the beautiful thing about having curiosity and innocence is that the world stays in a constant state of miraculous wonder. Throughout my life, I was rarely accepted or encouraged to be myself so to have basically a stranger who I spent nearly a week with tell me “Be who you are” was astounding to me!
When I shared the vision of my website to a friend, she said, “It’ll be your masterpiece.” All my life, wearing my heart on my sleeve was not cool and following my heart was frowned upon. This site will be my most authentic as well as most raw artistic and philosophical expression thus far. I went through a lot in life to finally understand my destiny, and this is the perfect space where I can freely express and philosophize with other light beings who are on the same path of ascension. United in loving-kindness, let’s be who we are as we come together for true healing by following our hearts.