Can you remember a time in your life when someone or some situation called you forward, asked you to open wider, be more, give more of your true self out loud? Was there someone who saw your uniqueness, your spark of genius, and named it?

Maybe it was your high school art teacher who told you to keep drawing, or a boss who encouraged you to take on more responsibility. Or maybe it was yesterday, in yoga class, when the teacher asked you to hold a pose longer than usual.

Where are you being asked to step up? To step out of your comfort zone and put your unique self out into the world a little bit more?

And how are you responding?

Yesterday I heard about the passing of one of the most gifted and compelling teachers I’ve ever known personally, someone who once called me forward into my gifts in a profound way. Her passing, too soon at 67, got me thinking about whether I’ve lived into her recognition of me, and about how we each respond when someone sees our greatness and names it, or calls us to step up and into our highest self.

What stops us from really stepping up?

The teacher, Vidya Carolyn Dell’Uomo, was one of the shining lights at the Kripalu Yoga Center and out in the world. Back in the early 1990’s I helped facilitate leadership retreats of Kripalu group leaders. I’d often be asked to lead a guided meditation or yoga class. The groups were made up of yoga teachers and group discussion leaders from all over the world, many of them much more experienced and knowledgeable than I was. I always said YES! despite how nervous I was on the inside.

When it came time to teach, I would consciously release my fears, asking to became an open channel for wisdom to come through. I never prepared anything in advance, trusting that what needed to come out of my mouth would come. Afterward, I often couldn’t even remember what I’d said, I had been so deeply in the state of flow.

After one such guided meditation, Vidya came up to me. I don’t mind telling you, I was a little intimidated by her. She might have been petite in build, but her spirit was huge! She was an amazingly gifted speaker and teacher. Her energy could light up a room and she inspired thousands in retreats and trainings she gave around the globe. I could only hope to teach from as deep and connected a place as she did! That day Vidya came up to me and got right in my face.

She said, “I see who you are. You teach God.”

I was both stunned and embarrassed. I knew what she was talking about and, although I didn’t completely understand it, that what she was saying was true. She was acknowledging that I teach from a deep and intimate connection with the Divine. She saw that my deepest truth is to be an open channel for Love to flow through, and that happens when I drop my ego and fear and let the teaching happen through that open channel.

And she was calling me forward to keep doing that, to keep teaching (and living) from that deep place. It was a shock to hear it named, to be seen and acknowledged so deeply, and by such a powerful teacher. Even now I feel shy about writing this because I don’t want it to sound like I’m getting on a spiritual high horse and boasting.

I’m not some high and mighty spiritual person, I’m just fumbling around this planet like everyone else. But what Vidya named in me is that my deepest gift, the place where I most shine from within, is teaching. Expressing my uniqueness and serving the highest good happen most profoundly when I teach. And if I’m not acknowledging and living into that, in my life coaching sessions and at Your Spirited Life, then I’m really just spinning my wheels.

What about you?

What do you know, deep, deep down, to be the place in yourself and in the world you need to step up into?

It would be my honor to help you figure this out, to move past your fears, and to blossom into your fullest expression. For me, both Vidya’s words from 25 years ago and the 46 people (46!) who expressed interest in learning to be a life coach have inspired me to keep moving forward, one step at a time, with the idea of creating an online Holistic Life Coach Training Program for this fall. It’s intimidating, since all the tech stuff is so complex, but really, what else can I do but step up?

Blessings on your journey,

Annie

P.S. Email me for a “Step Up” Life Coaching Session and get $10 off the standard session price. Let’s do this!

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