Let's start with a short story, because really, who doesn't like a good story.

Once there was a village at the banks of a big, strong river. One day a villager saw a person crying for help as they were being carried by the strong forces of the rivers current. The villager, who was a strong swimmer, jumped in and pulled the drowning person ashore. Briefly afterward, another person was carried downstream, and then another, and another. The villager called his friends for help and they all came to offer assistance. They got really busy and exhausted helping more and more people in high distress in the river, and then fighting for their lives to save others in the currents day after day. So the villagers invented a net that was cast across the river so it would catch people. They built shelters and clinics for the people whose lives they have saved…

What is it that the villagers are missing?

They miss finding out why people are falling into the river upstream in the first place.

So how does that relate to what we’re doing here?

We've tried to fix our downstream long enough. Now we are willing to start the journey to find out what’s happening upstream of our own lives.

Because we live in a world full of distractions. We're constantly surrounded by chaos and noise. As a result, we often find ourselves feeling unhappy, stressed, anxious, and simply stuck in our lives. Stuck in a job we don’t like. Stuck in our relationships. Or generally stuck on autopilot, trying to find more meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.

Maybe you've tried a bunch of things, but nothing seems to work to make long-lasting, sustainable change. Unfortunately when this happens, we tend to default to our set habits and fixed beliefs, even when we know those habits make us feel lousy.

When we feel stuck the one thing that seems to be lacking the most in our lives is self-care. In my line of work, I see it all the time, we simply don’t love ourselves enough.

We avoid taking care of ourselves because we either believe we don’t have the time, or we carry the common misconception that self-care is a selfish act. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you feel stuck, if you want your life to change for the better in even the slightest of ways, you need to prioritize yourself. There’s a reason why you’re asked to put the oxygen mask on yourself before anyone else if the plane is going down.

The first step to taking care of yourself is knowing yourself, and the first step to knowing yourself is slowing down, paying attention, and turning your awareness inwards.

I like to think of this process of slowing down as an opportunity to get out of your head and into your heart. And that's where my system comes in, so we can get to a place of letting go of the old, to make way for the new.

It's like my good friend and author Timber Hawkeye says, "Isn't it refreshing to know that just because we've always been a certain way, it doesn't mean we have to stay that way forever?"