Today’s shared story comes from movement coach Karin McDermott.
Experiencing life from the soul’s point of view is what drives and sustains me. I’ve made it my mission to revere soul through the enormous gift of the senses. They offer nourishment and sanctuary to my body, yet also deliver the bewilderment needed to continually be enchanted by life. My own journey taught me that enlightenment is not a destination – it’s a philosophy of living. It means cultivating a fully considered and continually evolving life, accepting challenges with grace, and then luxuriating in the everyday resolution…with passion.
Honoring the wisdom of my senses took an unwavering faith in their ability to orchestrate my decisions. It had become vividly clear that my soul was yearning to be seduced by an honest connection to the Divine. For me, that put meaning into meaningful. I call that grace. Grace saturated my life when I surrendered to being impassioned and replete with soul. I strive to live there…every day.
We’re collectively joined by a craving for beauty, serenity and meaning. The senses are my refuge into those cravings; they’re a tangible connection to a union with my self, my family and my surroundings. I’ve always been a mind-body-soul seeker, but my refuge wasn’t always assured. My early twenties found me continually entrenched in a stack of self-help books that either explained how to chase my toddlers while still smiling, or how to lock the door so a bath would magically engender the promise of balance. Great ideas for living in the moment, but they left me continually searching outside of myself for the big-picture answers. I was an overwhelmed, over-exhausted single mother so deeply absorbed in caring for others that I forgot to nourish the innately essential me. I had insidiously fallen away from the wisdom of my senses, and yearned desperately to be enlivened again. So I began to revisit my physical self, first and foremost through my love of movement. I realized it was the one thing I instinctively trusted for the safe exploration of my soul. My senses were awakened there. What I discovered in the process was the deeply galvanizing truth that the human body demands refuge within itself for authentic exploration. Physical connection to the outside world is the resplendent expression of the soul’s yearning to re-engage the senses. This became the driving force behind the sojourn back to me, and the revelation that changed the direction of my life forever. I pledged faith in the wisdom of my senses to unearth my passionate human soul. And I never looked back.
Of course, some of life’s journeys come the very hard way and force us in yet another direction, but it’s how we take the next step that defines us. In my case it also forced me to take a penetrating look at how my time would be spent and how going forward it needed to be only ‘doing what I love.’ Yes, I had been an overwhelmed, over-exhausted single mother for whom physical depletion sadly became my normal way of life. And yes, I found a method to reinvigorate that life through my senses. But in the meantime, I was given the diagnosis that Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus) had already found it’s way into my body, and on that day I knew my life would again change direction. A drastic shift in lifestyle was immediate and compulsory. A good team of doctors, an overdue divorce, less stress, more sleep, new daily affirmations and my Soultree™ movement practice became the collective kick-start to my journey of cultivating a life ‘Doing What I Love’. Next came infusing the senses into every area of my life with the fierce devotion of a righteous warrior, and I prevailed. I realized the re-engagement of my sensual life was also the missing piece of my wellness puzzle, and it was that discovery that reinforced the direction of my calling. I have been abSOULutely compelled to share my methods with others ever since. It’s my quest, and I respect it deeply. Since 2000, I’ve been teaching movement as a method for unearthing the passionate human soul to clients in the U.S., Europe and Australia.
In 2004, I founded Soultree Motion, Inc., a movement and lifestyle company based in Manhattan Beach, California. I’ve been fortunate and blessed to share my philosophy with features on Oprah, Discovery Channel, 48-Hours, HGTV, Univision, SoCal’s Best & Celebrity Overhaul. The opening of my proprietary Soultree™ studios on both U.S. coasts gave sacred space its aesthetic due as a vital mechanism for cultivating a soul-directed life, as well as providing women the evocative serenity they craved. My teaching methods continue to garner enthusiastic accolades due to my SOULutions proffered with humor, grace and my uniquely familiar and forthcoming book title…abSOULutely! I do what I love daily, I luxuriate in the sensuality of every moment, and through my own phenomenally blessed journey, I discovered I had a knack for sharing how. That makes me smile. I live passionately every day…from my soul. Join me.
Doing What I Love… is cultivating a deeply authentic and passionately inspired life of sensual harmony.
[All images courtesy of Karin McDermott.]
To find out more about Karin visit her website or connect on Twitter @Karin_McDermott.
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