REGENIGNITE

ReGenIGNITE is the experience or the process I use to describe my BEcoming.  At this point in my journey, I am living more and more in the present moment as an Ignitor, one who sparks energy for change.  I can say that now, but as I reflect back to share a portion of my story with you, I realize how interesting and full of surprises my life has been.  I know exactly when I decided to turn away from “the script” and make choices that changed my life.  Many times over the past 25 years I encountered an experience that, yet again, brought me to my knees. Each time I had to figure out how to continue to BEcome, to re-ignite my flame, to rise from the ashes. My life awakened when I aligned with my mission—to bring love into every interaction, attraction, reaction, and transaction while on this planet. 

It was in 2000 that I was asked by the Vice President of Academic Affairs to relocate to our sister campus across the Hudson River.  I was charged with developing a new undergraduate academic program for women in business.  It was also at this time my marriage was falling apart and, family as I knew it, was about to change.  It seemed everything I knew was now so foreign.  Here I was at a turning point—a transition I didn’t plan or understand.  Now what?  Not really sure how I felt about this, I immersed myself completely in the culture of my new workplace and became involved in the Women’s Center.  Much to my surprise, I knew I was in the right place—here I could be who I didn’t know I was—an Ignitor and Feminist.  Feminist meaning an empowered person believing in equality and equity AND Ignitor, a light, a spark willing to get involved to work with women during transition/ changes in their lives.  

I was co-teaching a course called Women Changing the World and my colleague was planning to go on a research trip to Mexico. But there wasn’t any room for another so I forgot about it.  Now to the really big AHAH. One of the participants couldn’t join and knew I had expressed interest. Again, Divine intervention. So, I joined a delegation of activists, students, and academics to study working conditions in the maquiladoras in Northern Mexico just after President Clinton signed NAFTA.  

Very quickly I realized this was not what I thought it would be.  We were interviewing Mexican women in Matamoros and Reynosa who had jobs in U.S. company maquiladoras (factories) about their working conditions.  The women were the laborers and American men were the managers.  They didn’t hire Mexican men because they couldn’t control them as they could women.  We listened and asked questions.  Each day my heart opened more and what I heard was very disturbing to say the least.  The conditions were unsafe, the women were harassed, and the working hours and pay, well, 50+ hours a week for $35US weekly.  The Mexican men were displaced and finding solace in drugs and violence.  Living conditions for these families were atrocious.  I remember asking why there were random cement blocks collecting in the Colonias where they lived.  I was told it took years to be able to buy enough to build a small dwelling.  I remember crying uncontrollably and being comforted by my colleagues.  The point being, I was appalled at the way business was being conducted and how hard-working, kind, loving people were being treated for corporate greed.  How was I ever going to teach business the way I was taught?  Well, I knew I couldn’t.  This is when I WOKE UP.  

Being engaged with women as a professor and colleague in an environment with faculty from different disciplines, I began to release my past or old way of life. The longing, searching for something I couldn’t identify became clearer.  I learned about self-love, teaching about empowerment and change. I lead, guided, coached, and shared from a new standpoint.  I learned how to create community, teach from my brain and my heart, raise powerful questions for young women professionals to delve deep within themselves so they could develop their worldview and begin to know their Higher Self.  I unlearned behaviors that didn’t serve me well.  You know those automatic, unconscious behaviors we do without even thinking!  The most profound of these was my conscious choice to embrace a spiritual lifestyle—a well-being liberation integrating mind, body, and soul.  I studied with many spiritual teachers, some famous and well-known (Jack Kornfield, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Joe Dispenza, Dali Lama) and others who appeared in my life just when I needed support.  I read countless books, attended retreats, received certifications, and knew meditation, movement, nutrition, and sleep were key.  

There are so many more stories where I overcame obstacles and in the process learned lessons in my BEcoming.   As your Coach, I’ll share the Wisdom gleaned from teachers, gurus, scholars, and leaders with you as you BEcome.

I have been Divinely guided over the past 25 years to be an Ignitor.  An Ignitor sparks the light and inspires another.  As your coach, I will hold the sacredness of your transformation process.  As an Ignitor, I will guide you to delve deep within to hear your Higher Self so you, too, become an Ignitor of your life.