Where does "Stone to Lotus" come from?

The original concept of Stone to Lotus was inspired by my life’s journey.

As a child I endured a world of homelessness, neglect, fear, violence, and abandonment and by my late teens I had become hard, cold and angry. In those days my sister used to tell me that hugging me was like “hugging stone.”

I had no idea how to be with my feelings, how to relax into the present moment, or how to live with an open heart.

Things shifted when I turned 19 and suffered two life-threatening medical conditions. Months spent in recovery forced me to slow down and take stock of the person I had become. I realized that what I really wanted in life was to be loving, present, and open-hearted.

Thus began my quest into reaching my “full potential.” I questioned my capacity for growth which lead me into the fields of psychology, neurology, philosophy, spirituality, and quantum physics.

I also put myself through a Master’s program in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, which proved to be one of the most intense growth experience I could have ever imagined.

After years of internal excavation, my world feels entirely different than my days of living like a “stone.” I grew out of my childhood experience of not being able to feel, listen or know what was going on inside of me because it was too painful for a small child to bear.

Over the course of this journey I have learned to alchemize my own suffering into creative possibility; to transmute and shape-shift out of being a stone, out of feeling cold, hard and stuck, into being a lotus feeling warm, open and fluid.

The experience of mindfully relating to the present moment, not running, but knowing, slowing and living in relationship with self, other, nature and spirit, is the heart of Stone to Lotus. It is about acknowledging and taking responsibility for the fact that I hold the power to alchemize my own pain into possibility.