Risk Your Brilliance

I know I don't reach out often...but I'm so happy to let you know about a great event I am participating in and it's coming up soon!

The Risk Your Brilliance Tele-Summit.

When:  Monday, May 16 through Thursday, May 26th.  

My interview featured in the Tele-Summit is based on the workshop I gave in April at the Smith College Women's Leadership Conference...Redefining Success One Failure at a Time:  Tips and Tricks from a Spiritual Seeker... and I think you will really like it.  

After you register, you will be given information about when and how you can access my interview, as well as interviews with more than 20 handpicked experts in health, beauty, parenting, family, home, relationships, health, communication and empowerment.  We all share practical takeaways, step-by-step information, gifts, and bonuses galore.

Grab your phone and boot up your computer, and get ready to learn secrets and tips from more than twenty experts about how to Risk Your Brilliance. 

No travel required.  Listen and learn from wherever you are.

Cost:  $0.00

Click here to RSVP now.

Consider the Risk Your Brilliance Tele-Summit to be your front row pass to the information, tips, and secrets of over 20 experts from the world of

• love
• purpose
• relationships and intimacy
• family and parenting
• communication
• health and the cancers of our lives
• accessing feminine grace
• beauty and self-confidence
• career and wealth
• spirituality
• the power of language
• and so much more

These professionals in their fields have all graciously offered to donate their time and expertise to help you on the path to your ultimate brilliance.  Each fun, lively interview will take about 30 minutes of your valuable time and will be available for listening until the end of the day of its presentation.

RSVP to the celebration of the season.

I look forward to having you join me!  And, I would love it if you would forward this invitation to anyone you think would like to learn how to express more of their unique brilliance in our world. 

Love,  Tami

Spiritual Response Therapy: Energy Modality or Holy Grail?

I have always been interested in figuring out how life works and how to make it better. I’m certainly not alone. Like many in the helping professions, I have always been fascinated by the motivations behind human behavior. This interest really took hold back in the mid-1980’s when I realized that I needed some outside help to figure out my life. I found a great psychotherapist who helped me identify childhood patterns and issues that explained much of why I did what I did. I devoted myself whole heartedly to therapy and it changed my life. I even dove into therapy again about 10 years ago with another awesome therapist after a good friend died and I experienced very deep grief.

Despite the amazing changes psychotherapy helped bring about in my life, there were a several issues that just didn’t seem to shift. I started to suspect that we all have a few issues with deeper roots than psychotherapy on its own could get to and resolve so I went on a hunt for a modality that could not only identify these core issues, but also clear them. I tried many different methods and they all helped, but I when I found Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT) I danced for joy.

Spiritual Response Therapy is my own personal Holy Grail. Its ability to get to the heart of the most deeply embedded issues and clear them still astounds and delights me. Sometimes this process is almost instantaneous, appearing almost magical, while other times it works on an issue over a long period of time before results are obvious. It depends, like everything else, on our level of resistance to change and the spiritual “programs” that are standing in our way.

I have learned that Spirit is not on the clock. Just because I want to be free of some issue today or I want something to manifest by tomorrow morning does not mean that it is going to happen that way. What I have also learned through SRT is that it doesn’t really matter how long it takes to unravel an issue or problem because the journey itself is always illuminating. Sometimes the process is frustrating, like when you are learning a new language or trying to master a new sport, but it is always illuminating…and often even fun. When you start looking for the meaning behind your pain and suffering, instead of just whining about it (which I have done more times than I care to count), you gain insights into your own nature and the nature of reality that make life very worth living.

I’ll explain more about SRT and its amazing real life applications in future blog posts. If you can’t wait until then, shoot me an email at tami@tamicoyne.com to schedule a complimentary 20 minute conversation about how SRT might be able to help you, look around my website, and download my article “Explore the Benefits of Spiritual Response Therapy.” And, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

Disclaimer:  Spiritual Response Therapy is not a replacement for psychotherapy nor should it replace medical visits with your health care practitioner. I am an ordained Interfaith Minister and a certified Spiritual Response Therapy consultant. I am not a medical doctor nor am I a licensed mental health professional. I do not diagnose nor cure conditions nor do I interfere with the treatment of licensed medical professionals. While many clients experience deep shifts and changes after an SRT clearing with me, I make no guarantee, promise, warranty, or representation, either implied or stated, regarding the result of a session.

How I Found the Goddess, Part I

The Goddess is not a person.  Neither is God, by the way. 

I figured this out when I was in elementary school.  I was fascinated with lots of subjects and religion was one of them.  On the occasions I went to church, I felt in my heart that there must be something to all that ritual (yes, it was a Catholic Church) or why would people bother to participate at all. 

One of my dad’s cousins was a really progressive Priest who was –and still is—super handsome so it wasn't too tough sitting through Mass with him running the show.  Also, it was the late 60’s and Vatican II had just happened and there were hootenanny masses with folk music and guitars and homilies against the Vietnam War.  I loved that stuff.  But, even despite all that, I trusted my reasoning skills and it seemed that most of what was taught at Church made no sense at all. 

Yes, I loved Jesus.  In fact, he reminded me of me in certain ways.  He was a smidge defiant, he was really inquisitive, he stuck up for the underdog, and he had a temper.  I think we all see Jesus the way we want to see him.  But all the rules and regulations—and the dogma—I just couldn't see why not eating meat on Friday had anything to do with anything or how Original Sin was a constructive point of view.  But at the time the biggest obstacle holding me back from embracing the faith of my ancestors was the idea that God was Jesus’ father and that Jesus was his only begotten son.  If Jesus was human and was God’s only son, then God had to have been human.  When I looked up begotten, it was defined as “generated by procreation,” and even as a fifth grader that meant sex to me.

Except there was no sex—God used Angels and some kind of magic to impregnate the Virgin Mary so Jesus could be born here with Joseph, a carpenter, as his stand-in dad.  Then, after growing up, questioning his elders and kicking tax collectors out of the Temple, Jesus heals the sick and does his level best to preach a new philosophy which he taught in the form of obtuse riddles. He makes enemies with the Jewish leaders and the Roman Empire, is tortured and then dies a horribly painful death on the cross.   God, his father, can’t or won’t intervene because it had to be that way to save humans from their sins.  And somehow, as a result of what went down with Jesus we are all saved and we are supposed to be kind and loving to one another and do what the Church tells us to do.   

I was very confused—I knew from elementary school science that this story wasn't literally true—God could not be a person.  Humans aren't omnipresent, omnipowerful and omniscient.  Humans can’t create planets, stars, and black holes.  Not even Superman could do that.   But I also knew there was some important information that “The Greatest Story Ever Told” was trying to convey that like Jesus’ parables, wasn't obvious on the surface.    When we started studying Greek mythology in school, I figured it out.  Christianity was a myth and I had to decode it to find its deeper meaning.  This point of view was and still is blasphemous to many people across the globe.  For me, figuring this out has been the most liberating achievement of my life.  Unraveling the myth of Jesus led me to deep spiritual insights and to the Goddess herself—but it took a really long time.

I was 33 years old when I found the Goddess hiding in plain sight.

Stay tuned for Part II…

Goddess Rising: Why I Choose to Write About the Goddess

I have not written anything of value for an entire year.  I’ve composed a few decent Facebook posts, but not much else.  I didn’t even add a note to my holiday cards.  Scratch that.  I never add a note to my holiday cards.  I’m too stressed to write notes at the holidays.

The truth is that since 1998 I have written and co-written two books and a thesis and while not as prolific as many other writers, I found that I was tapped out.  So much has been written about spirituality that I started to feel that everything that needed to be said had already said and I didn’t have anything more to contribute. 

Writing can be such a solitary process.  Solitary processes can lead to getting caught up in the loop of one’s own thoughts.  Lately, the thought of codifying these thoughts into writing seemed stupid.  To be honest, as I reread this, the word codifying is stupid too.  So expert like…so wannabe guru…so know it allish.  That is what I hate about spiritual books. 

I haven’t been feeling sorry for myself…although I’m quite capable of that…it’s just that since I started working with clients directly using a combination of Spiritual Response Therapy and my own life coaching style, spirituality has started to really come alive for me.   Working with others to remove blocks to manifesting their spiritual and real life potential is challenging and just so damn fun.  Every client is different.  Each set of challenges is unique.  I feel like I go to Coney Island everyday to work. 

So why the sudden urge to write again, you ask?  Simple.  Today I felt inspired.  This morning, in rapid succession, I read several articles about women who were rising out of the misery of poverty, rape, disease, and bullying by speaking up and out and embracing the authentic truth of their lives.  I was filled with hope.

It made me remember how much my life has shifted since meeting the Goddess…the feminine face of God.  It was in the mid 90’s in Litchfield, Connecticut at a retreat at Wisdom House.  She called me daughter and said she was proud of me.  The voice was my voice inside my head but I knew it was her.  Who else could it be?  I was part of her and she was part of me.  A deep intuitive knowing revealed itself along with a profound longing for a stronger connection with Divinity, for an even more primal recognition of my unbreakable bond with Source.

After that initial meeting, I couldn’t stop running into her.  She was everywhere.  The Goddess soon whispered to me that Sophia would be a good name for my daughter.  It was the she who shifted me away from the dry coaching format I had been using and toward the living, personalized approach I now use. 

A series of other goddesses helped me write and publish my books; encouraged my ordination as an interfaith minister; and pushed me to expand my horizons and embrace the intuitive gifts I always knew I had but was afraid to put to use.  Others continue to encourage me; push my buttons; and force my hand.  I am blessed that many men with goddess awareness also continue to help me, love me and inspire me.  The effect of the Goddess is my life is so profound that I need to honor the source of all that love…all that compassion…all that wisdom.  I want to say thank you.  I want to spread the love. 

So, I plan to write about her; once a month, but maybe more.  The Goddess is rising.  I feel it in my bones.  I want 2013 to be her year, my year, your year. 

She says that she will stay and inspire me on only one condition.  I must promise never to use the word “codify” again.  And I promise I won’t.

Amen.

Spiritual Evolution and Groundhog Day

Whenever I think of spiritual evolution, I think of Groundhog Day. 

Not the day itself, although it is my favorite holiday (probably because of its pagan roots—happy Imbolc/Candlemas/St. Brigit’s day everyone) but because of the 1993 movie that starred Bill Murray. 

Bill plays Phil Connors, a cynical, egocentric Pittsburgh weatherman who suffers through covering the annual Groundhog Day celebration in Punxatawney, PA.  Andie MacDowell plays Rita, the likeable, wise (in a low-key kind of way), news producer.  After the celebration, while trying to return to Pittsburgh, the news team encounters a bad snow storm and is forced to return to Punxatawney and stay over night. 

The next morning Phil wakes up to find that it is Groundhog Day all over again.  This happens day after day and we get to laugh as Phil Connors struggles with this difficult, seemingly endless, situation.  When Phil realizes that he is the only one trapped in this time loop, he begins to take use his situation to take advantage of people in the town, commit crimes, seduce women, etc.  He also continually tries to impress Rita. 

As time wears on, however, he becomes increasingly depressed and even tries to kill himself.  He eventually tells Rita what is happening to him and she recommends that he use the time to try and improve himself, which he does.  He learns how to play the piano, helps people in the town, and even learns how to speak French.  By the end of the movie, Phil Connors is a changed man and the most popular person in Punxatawney.  Of course the movie has a happy ending.  Rita falls in love with this most wonderful man, the time loop is broken, and they live happily ever after in Punxatawney.

Groundhog Day just sums it all up.  (So does the Bhagavad Gita but it’s not that funny.) 

A Soul starts out on its journey in matter very self-involved, always looking for an angle to get ahead, make more money, get more power, and impress the other Souls along the way.  In time, for many Souls, this story begins to lose its meaning.  Everyday just seems like the day before.  We get depressed, sometimes really badly depressed.  Or, we get sick, lose our jobs, get divorced.  We lose faith.  But, just when nothing seems to matter, we begin to hear Spirit’s call and we begin to evolve.  Slowly at first.  Maybe we just start questioning who we are and what we’re doing here.  Maybe we decide to stop taking everything so damn seriously and personally.  Maybe, just maybe, we stop thinking all together for a few minutes a day and start feeling, listening.  And then eventually, everything starts to shift.  Our hearts open.  We begin to realize that we are spiritual beings—each and every one of us.   And then it dawns on us—there is no separation between us and Spirit.  We’ve never been apart.  It only looked that way.  And we live happily ever after, no matter what happens.

What is Spiritual Counseling?

What is Spiritual Counseling?

Spiritual counseling is a method designed to help a person awaken to the reality of “The One Life Principle.”

This ancient idea says that there is a single underlying power in the universe but the expression of this power takes many forms. Scientists call this power Energy, Nature, the Unified Field, or Consciousness. Theologians call it God or Spirit.

This power expresses itself as you, me and everyone and everything else in the Universe. When we wrap our minds around this simple premise, we realize that because everyone and everything comes from the same spiritual source, we are all spiritual. If we all come from the same spiritual source, then there is no separation — not only between us and God — but between us and anyone or anything else.

Like computers hooked up to a network server, each one of us has access to any and all information stored in the spiritual database of the Universe. As a result, we are inherently able to directly communicate with God/Spirit and all of its creations. As expressions of spiritual energy, we can do and be whatever we want. On the deepest spiritual level, we are not stuck, isolated, alone or being punished.

The goal of spiritual counseling is to wake up to our own underlying divine power and express ourselves as spiritual human beings. The reward of spiritual counseling is realizing that there is no upward limit to what we can experience, do or be.  With this realization, we can go forth in the world with confidence, inner peace, and deep and abiding love for all that is.

Gateways

I was born in 1960 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a hard-working steel town that was still in the process of transforming itself from an immigrant-dominated, working class city to its current status as a well-respected corporate headquarters.

There's something about Pittsburgh that has stayed with me long after I left to go to college in Massachusetts. Maybe it’s the location. Before St. Louis, Pittsburgh was the "Gateway to the West." Only 300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Pittsburgh’s three rivers made travel and transport possible between the East Coast and further west. However, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Allegheny Mountains made getting people and goods to Pittsburgh from the East Coast difficult, so Pittsburghers created their own goods to sell which led to the city’s evolution into an industrial “smokey old town.” In some ways, Pittsburgh is similar to other industrial cities like Chicago and Detroit, but as a sort of dividing line between the East and the Midwest—Pittsburgh is unique.

I've now lived in New York City longer than I lived in Pittsburgh and while I am one of those New Yorkers who is deeply in love with the wild energy that is NYC, in my heart I am and always will be a Pittsburgher. I went to my first protest march in Pittsburgh, saw my first opera, heard my first symphony, and got my driver's license there too. I got my resourcefulness and stick-to-it-iveness from the values that emerged from the 'burgh’s industrial history and the keen sense that we're all in this together—no matter what kind of job we're doing, level of education we've received, or salary we're pulling down—from its role as a true ethnic melting pot.

It’s hard to imagine now, but for many years, Pittsburgh didn’t appeal to me. After living in Paris and New York, the city seemed too self-conscious and not nearly sophisticated enough for me. It symbolized everything about my past that I wanted to forget—especially my struggles with my father. My dad was a powerhouse of a man, and to me Pittsburgh belonged to him. In order for me to carve out my own life, we needed to live in different cities. And since New York is a hell of a town, I didn’t think I’d ever need Pittsburgh again. After my dad’s death, however, I felt the need to reclaim Pittsburgh as my own and now I know why.

Like the city of my birth, I am a gateway—not to the west like Pittsburgh—but to the Soul. And after all these years I know how to get there. Come with me and let’s ride the river together. A new frontier beckons.