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I love allegories. There’s something about stories that operate on multiple levels simultaneously that make me feel plugged into wisdom, truth, and aliveness. When I encounter one that speaks to me, it’s like a force field with a strong hum that wakes me up a little bit. It connects me to a deeper level of resonance.

Sometimes the message of the story is clear. The Tortoise and the Hare, for example. Slow and steady wins the race. Got it. But not all of them are as straightforward.

Take Jack and the Beanstalk. Quick refresher: a young boy is tasked with selling his family’s prized cow so he and his mother will have enough money to buy food. The boy exchanges the cow for magic beans rather than gold coins and returns home to discover that his mom doesn’t love his business instincts. Nevertheless, he plants the seeds and they give rise to a beanstalk. He climbs it to a castle in the sky, steals some valuable objects from a cranky giant, and then chops down the beanstalk to avoid some sort of medieval, multidimensional, John Wick situation.

I think this allegory does an amazing job of illuminating some of the timeless challenges that play out in our lives, ones that have certainly captured my attention. Harmonizing the pragmatism of the mind with the yearning of the heart. Making sense of the struggles we experience when our optimal balance is different from our family, friends, and neighbors. Navigating the unknown with as much confidence, trust, and grace as we can muster. Balancing our human wiring and survival needs with our innate drive towards evolution and transcendence.

At the same time, I think the messaging is confusing. And I don’t think it’s confusing just because these questions are hard. Don’t get me wrong. I think these questions are the exact dilemmas people have been trying to wrap their heads around forever. The stuff of life. If there were a neat and easy solution, we’d all know it. I honor their difficulty and complexity. But I think we get swallowed up by the plotlines and forget the most essential part…how the themes resonate within us.

Personally speaking, Jack and the Beanstalk trips me up because I find its messaging around magic and abundance to be disheartening. Are we meant to believe that we can only have survival or magic – pick one? Or that an ascent to the sky must be followed destruction? Or that abundance can only be found by taking what belongs to another? Thanks a lot, but no thanks.

As someone who is mesmerized by magic beans, I feel for Jack. I’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time in the discomfort of wanting to move beyond mere survival. I’m intimately familiar with that nagging sense that something is off without being able to put my finger on it. The urgency to feel another way or get somewhere else. And the agony of alternately feeling helpless to close the gap, overwhelmed by the prospect of creating change, and infuriated by unfulfilling life circumstances.

I’ve been fortunate to learn that there’s another way. Another way of seeing. Another way of making sense of it all. Another way of living. One that feels better. It’s on the other side of the belief that unless we do the things the “tried-and-true” way (read: the way the messages tell us we’re “supposed to”) we’re not going to get what we want.

When we start tuning in to our own individual blueprint and using it to chart our own course, things change. We gain the awareness that we don’t need to subscribe to the plotlines we’ve been fed, laden with their limitations. We learn how to determine whether things are right for us based on our internal compasses.

Here’s a reimagining: Jack sells the cow for gold coins. He uses half of the coins to buy food and create a garden. He uses the other half to buy magic beans. The beans give rise to a beanstalk that takes him to a cozy cottage in the sky. He encounters a wise creature who really takes to him. They become fast friends and business partners. Together they generate creative ideas that make them feel alive and nourished. When implemented, these ideas bring material well-being to them and the beings around them. The duo has so much fun collaborating that they start a cultural exchange program.

Less dramatic than the original but you get the point. Stories that deviate from the ones we’ve been told can be harder to envision because they’re less familiar. But that doesn’t mean we can’t write them. And that doesn’t make the novel stories any less true than the stifling ones we’ve been internalizing on autopilot.

Along my journey, I’ve noticed that it’s not just a well written allegory that elicits that force field of recognition and resonance within me. Well-tuned people who are living in integrity and moving harmoniously through the world generate the same response. They’ve got it. The hum. The buzz. The aliveness. The flow. That glorious synergy.

They’re tapped into something deeper. Living from fullness. And operating this way hasn’t detracted from their ability to survive. In fact, it’s enhanced their ability to take responsibility for their own well-being. Their commitment to living in this way not only serves them, but also serves us all. They are living, walking, breathing examples of what is possible for each and every one of us. They lift us up so that we can do the same for the people who are seeking the beacons that are us.

What I find to be infinitely inspiring is that these people didn’t always exist in this state. They first had to believe it was possible. And claim it as their birthright. And learn to contact it within themselves. And practice it. And expand it. Not by changing themselves, but by letting go of everything that was not true to them.

If we share a similar belief system, you’ll agree that we’re all born in that state of glorious synergy. Then all sorts of things happen that pull us away from our natural state and the truth of who we are. And living outside of our truth lands us in all sorts of situations that make us feel overwhelmed, angry, hollow, you get the gist.

Here’s the good news and the good news. It lives inside of all of us. And it is always speaking. The tricky part is that we don’t always know how to listen. Most of us don’t enjoy feelings and sensations that we consider unpleasant. And even if we are open to discomfort, interpreting the signals can feel like a futile exercise. But it wants to be fully expressed. It wants to be a full partner in creating our best lives. It contains a wellspring of power and creativity eagerly waiting to support us. And you don’t have to find it alone.

The coaching I offer is completely and totally in service of it. It’s a collaborative container tailored to you and designed to support you in your uniqueness and unique goals. It’s a sacred partnership committed to your exploration, challenges, and growth. A non-judgmental space to consider new possibilities beyond the narratives you’ve been taught.

I’m passionate about helping clients connect with and step into their own power. In our work together, you’ll learn to see suffering as a call to adventure - a message from it that there’s a better path available. You’ll become your own authority. You’ll learn to read your internal communications and trust in your ability to navigate according to it. You’ll calibrate your inner landscape to your external goals. This coaching can help you click on all cylinders, steer your own life with confidence, and move in flow.

If this doesn’t resonate with you, it’s all good! There are so many versions of magic out there and I hope you follow yours, wherever it leads you. But if you’ve landed here, perhaps you too are captivated by that hum. The buzz. The aliveness. If you’re seeking some more of that in your life...