4 Key Components to Transforming Your Life Through Trauma
CATALYZE /ˈKADLˌĪZ/ – TO INITIATE CHANGE; TO MODIFY.
I left my life in Cleveland, OH in 2008 at the age of twenty-eight with enough in my backpack to live for a year, in case I made it that long. When I left, I had no idea if I could survive for a week; I had never traveled with a backpack, and I certainly had not traveled to Asia. My travel partner was my boyfriend at the time, but that lasted a few weeks and erupted in massive arguments, his need for independence, my fear to travel solo. We both won because ultimately, my destiny was bigger than him.
Cason and I traveled together on and off, but every time he joined me again, I got sick. This was my lesson: toxic, stressful relationships in my life set off my autoimmune disease and caused me to get sick. I was not strong enough yet to say goodbye to him, and so I chose to remain weak and in pain. I chose physical and emotional suffering over solitude. It was my pattern, and I was conscious of it but I did not have the fortitude to break it. Together, we traveled in mid-November to Anapurna Circuit in Nepal. After spending a month in Kathmandu while I recovered from an upper respiratory infection (sick yet again…), we headed into the hills. Towards the end of our trek, we bumped into a pair of guys from San Francisco at one of the tea houses we stopped in for the night. One of the men, in particular, caught my eye, and I was drawn to him. Not in a romantic attraction sense, but in the sense that we were connected somehow. He was physically striking; his medium-length hair curled into tight, dirty blond ringlets that formed a serious fro. His piercing blue-hazel eyes had a story to tell. We all had a lovely, easy conversation that evening over faux western food and the conversation was easy. The two men were extremely well-educated, well-traveled lawyers and business partners who often took trips to different parts of the world together. Very down to earth, I was thrilled to meet people with whom I felt at home, far from my corner of the world.
Fast-forward one year, I was setting myself up in the US after spending eighteen months traveling the world. Shopping at Bed, Bath’ n Beyond for my new apartment I was a little shell-shocked in the West. Just as I was heading inside, I a tall man walking towards me on the sidewalk. I couldn’t see much, but I did see a large head of curly hair. As he got closer, I recognized Gerard! We had not kept in touch, so it was quite a shock to see him there, in the middle of San Francisco, where I had just moved. I had forgotten about him and had no recollection that he lived there or any clue whereabouts he lived. We kept in touch via Facebook from then on, every once in a while checking in with each other, primarily via the internet.
There was no mistake then, several years later, when I heard from Gerard while I was living in Bali. He was in the south of the island and relayed that he had been facing some life challenges – relationship issues, work stuff. At the time, I was launching Zahara + Jade and supplementing that with my Truth Catalyst™ work, although I was not officially offering my work to the public.
Given what he had told me about his current “stuckness” in life, I knew that The Truth Catalyst Method™ could work wonders for him. He trusted me, and we agreed on a place and a time to meet for a session. Below is what he wrote about it:
“I seem to have the uncanny ability to run into Zahara when either she is making a life transition or when her wise and deep counsel/guidance and authenticity were needed in my life. I first met her trekking in the Himalayas. We had a nice coffee and a pastry together at 3,000m and then said our goodbyes, only for me to run into her in San Francisco a few years later.
Fast forward a couple of years and I went to Bali to reconnect with an old flame in an experience that turned into a total disaster. Completely flailing both emotionally and spiritually I remembered, thanks to FB, that Zahara was there. We met up for coffee and she offered to walk me through some deep meditations/spiritual “journeying”… To be clear – I am not a “sensitive new age guy” and am pretty skeptical about what I see as “non-concrete” non-scientific things (am a lawyer by training of all things…) but agreed to keep an open mind.
I don’t know what happened or where she took me (and I did not ingest anything) but I went on one of the more profound spiritual journeys of my life. I made some sort of connection to my father who had been dead for more than 3 years and also was able to connect with a deeper part of my consciousness than I ever had previously. I felt like I was able to look from the outside into my own life and thoughts and really provide insight and guidance to myself in a way that simply had not been possible without her as a guide. Before the experience, I was, in a word, stuck. And after that experience, I became, unstuck.
From that day on, I felt that I was set on a new vector, one that has led me to a life of much greater satisfaction and happiness; a path I never would have found without Zahara’s help. The truth can set you free but sometimes you need someone to help you find it…yourself. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart…” ~ Gerard
WE HAD TRANSFORMED HIS LIFE.
I DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN FOR YOU
Gerard was, and still very much is, successful by societal standards. University of Michigan, Harvard Law School; he’s brilliant, well-traveled, well-lived, and knows how to build successful businesses and lead teams. Like all of us, he got stuck. That day in Bali, we talked very little about the “problems” he was having. Instead, we worked on the solution; shifting his stuck energy. I guided him through a journey inwards, so we could unearth and catalyze whatever was preventing him from moving forward in his life.
We unearthed his obstacles, which provided him with the insight and power to live the life he was meant to live. Like he said, that session was sort of a reset for him. It set him onto his true path, a life of great satisfaction and happiness. If that isn’t true purpose, I don’t know what is.
You can read about the formal process and the psychoneurobiology that this method is based on. You can follow the release of my memoir, which will describe in great detail my personal journey with this type of work. Over the course of two years, I transformed my body, which had been nearly debilitated at times from a rare autoimmune disease, to relatively healthy and able to travel the world. This type of work has the capability to catalyze serious and detrimental conditions of the mind, the body, and the spirit.
4 Key Components to Transforming Your Life & Trauma
- Trust – Trust is critical in this work. Naturally, it is critical that we both trust one another in order to take you inwards, to your deepest, darkest places that perhaps you yourself have not even uncovered. Also, though, you must trust yourself. Trust that you hold the answers to your life. Trust that your body knows your truth.
- Mind-Body-Spirit Connection – Understand that there is very little distinction between mind and body, so when you gut your truth – or mistruths – it can arise from different parts of you: subconscious, cellular memories, physical ailments, injured parts of your body, etc. Ultimately, where you find your golden gifts is irrelevant. What matters is that you become aware of it, and my job is to help you transform any stuckness, blocks, trauma, wounds, pain in the moment.
- Be Open – Part of being open means letting go, and trusting that your inner authority and inner wisdom will guide you where you need to go. Each time we catalyze truth, we journey into an inner dimension. If we are both open to where your journey leads, rest assured, your truth and life purpose will surface.
- Inner-worldly – Each time we catalyze truth, we journey into an inner dimension. This work is meant to guide you to truth. I do not control what you see or where you journey. That means that sometimes you journey the past, the present, but like Gerard, sometimes you might connect with the dead (I may not even know you are doing that), and sometimes you might journey into a past life, which has happened with a couple of my clients. These are spontaneous things that happen with The Truth Catalyst Method, and it is worth understanding for those of you ready to undertake this type of work.
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