Hello beautiful reader
I would love to know - how are you? Are you feeling able to press pause on the wider world for a moment and sit with me? Read with me? A 5 minute read? These musings are from my heart and I really hope something in them, touches yours. What I have to say may also piss you off, 50:50 chance. Always willing to take the risk!
Our attention spans are under great threat. To get to the bottom of this newsletter as a reader will be a great achievement. For me as the writer, it has taken multiple attempts to channel whats in my head and heart out my fingertips. There's a lot happening, for all of us and I have a lot to share. Please, make yourself comfortable. I want to tell you a story....
You may or may not know, for 9 years I worked in the Oil and Gas industry. I literally grew up at Woodside. Now, 10 years on, I still find myself wondering, why did I walk away from all that money, all that honey? I got to travel, I received heaps of professional development, I was steadily climbing the OHS ladder. I was earning $100,000+, renting a heavily subsidised house, working a 9 day fortnight, having my uniform WASHED & IRONED...I was living the Pilbara dream.
So why did I quit my job? In a nutshell - Yoga. There are many moments in life I have already forgotten, but this one remains a deep etching in my bodies cellular memory. It was a balmy evening, at Millars Well sporting complex in Karratha where a yoga teacher named Bindu changed my life. Bindu encouraged me to listen to my body. I'd skipped the whispers though and my body was soon screaming. I sustained a pretty rough knee injury (netball, not yoga) where I severed my ACL and ruptured my MCL. I had been feeling uncomfortable at work, my moral compass spinning wildly. I felt a massive incongruence between what I thought my role was and what I was actually participating in. The incongruence was carving a gaping chasm between my head and my heart. 'Luckily' this injury had me redeployed to Perth. In the office, I was more restless, more anxious - there was a lot more of everything stimulating and exhausting, and a lot less satisfaction.
So I went on a yoga retreat for a week. It cracked me open, to learn the language of my body and to listen to it. I decided to stay on and do a three week yoga immersion. On the last day, I dislocated my shoulder. Again - my body spoke, loud and clear. I was dreading returning to work on Monday, to an organisation I was no longer proud to work for, to watch people I cared for work themselves to the bone yet be replaced quick sticks every organisational restructure. So I resigned, that liberating Friday afternoon. It's entirely possible I was still in shock but something in me was a hard no to continuing to walk a path that was not for me.
So why am I telling you this? Well the foundation of my 'work' is based in encouraging people feeling their feelings and listening to their bodies. It's a pleasure and a privilege to facilitate yoga and it's so precious that I still have 'students' (who I now call friends) who have been with me since the beginning of this wild journey. Now the living well side of my business (almost) takes care of itself, I am turning my attention to support dying well. I am excited to be part of the shift around how we view death, dying, grief and loss. It's taken some years to integrate the losses I have experienced but they are absolutely the inspiration that moves me to change the way we approach the 'taboo' because I would love to see humanity fully embrace this finite life.
So why am I really telling you this?
Because so many of us are not living fully. Hi me 10 years ago!
Because I had three seperate conversations over the weekend with people about the work they do & it was said (paraphrasing) even though there are parts of their work that are doing irreversible damage to people and place, the money is great. And if they weren't doing it, someone else would so it might as well be them taking the money honey. I did not ask these people directly if they are satiated by their work or satisfied with their life but there were hints to suggest no, no they weren't.
I believe how we live will impact how we die, and how we die matters. I have been guiding people to consider and get clear on their values and preferences for end of life as part of Advance Care Planning. What becomes acutely obvious is that many of us aren't LIVING according to our values.
When will we realise - we can't eat money & we can't take it with us? This life, what we do with it, what we do with our gifts matters. What we love doing IS what we are here to do, so why are so many of us, not loving what we do? I hear you - bills, mortgages, mouths to feed. Depending where you look, you will find evidence to support this reasoning. Look deeper and you will also see people breaking the chains, making change and taking steps to live more in alignment with that which is truly true to them. Hello 2022 version of me.
You've probably seen this kicking around the interweb and I completely agree:
Most small businesses in Australia do not make it past the three year mark, and here I am, a decade on. Do you know what is even more brilliant? Despite 'earning' no where near as much money, rarely have I felt like I am missing out. Don't get me wrong, the struggle is real but I have managed rather well to take care of myself and my health because that's my ultimate wealth. I have always had enough to still be generous, to nourish myself with great tucker, to get therapy when I need. I have still travelled, although not as extensively as when I had a disposable income. I always seem to have enough money for coffee and cake!
I have learned to live simply, and simply live. I really try to live a life guided by my values. One of my highest - can you guess - integrity! Have you ever noticed the word integrity contains the word grit? It absolutely takes grit, determination, conviction, trust, faith and support to stand in integrity. But to live a life out of integrity or nowhere near what I say I value? It's just not an option now.
*perhaps give your eyes a little rest here, turn away from the screen, have a stretch*
I'd like to circle waaaaay back to our attention spans. Why might that be, that our attention span has become a commodity? Well, my theory is if we weren't exhausted and uninspired by what we do to make money, we'd have more energy to pay attention. To what? Well, ourselves mostly. Our inner yearnings. Our intuition. To the whispers of our body. To our loved ones. To the world around us.
Can you imagine a world where people were rested, respected and reverent for the preciousness that is being alive?
I mean statistically, it's a miracle that we were even born. Can you imagine if we lived in a world where people treated moments like miracles instead of something we flippantly scroll through? The latest research suggests Australians will spend 17 years of their life, staring at their phones. It might sounds mad but this is part of why I want to pour more effort into sitting down and writing to you, like this. And you sitting down and reading. And then you (hopefully) pondering and taking something from these words.
Me sharing some of the finer details of my life is not to evoke a pity party, it was more to show you what is possible. I live a brilliant lifestyle, I value having plenty of precious time to be present with life and death. I will never, and I mean never, work full time again. Maths is not my forte but if you are working full time, how much time is left for living, playing, loving? It is absolutely my journey to learn to walk in my worth. I am growing every day and expanding my capacity to receive great money in exchange for the great offerings I feel compelled to share. There are not many people I would wish to trade places with. Ok if you made it this far - gold star, high five AND big hug! Now, have I pissed you off? Sparked something? Activated or agitated part of you? If so, my job here is done, but not complete - I would love to have a yarn with you if this has evoked something. Hit me back, let's chat. Your magic is precious, be wise with it.
With love & devotion to doing things differently. Erin