Why Choose The Pilgrimage and Work with me to Build Resilience & Find More Joy

Welcome! Whether you got here by reading another page on my site or landed fresh from a search or share, let me give you a quick breakdown of my ideas so you can figure out if this is what you’re looking for:

About a decade ago I was in a position where I was forced to make significant changes/choices in my life. I’d hate to dissuade you from starting your own Pilgrimage when you learn how hard it can be and that I’m still a WiP (Work in Process) and there isn’t some quick fix, hack or pill you can take to get around all that, but I can honestly tell you, even with all the rough, and even dark days and experiences, I now not only have resilience, but I finally have an abundance of joy!

The Pilgrimage: if you search through history, you’ll find stories, myths, and examples of great journeys that are best described as pilgrimages, if they aren’t actually named or referred to by that name already. I gained my understanding when I stumbled upon The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan and various posts and maps about pilgrimage routes that are still are in use around the world, including The Hajj and the ones in the UK, France, and Spain that date back to the Middle Ages. Ironically, only recently did I realize the stories like that of Moses & the Israelites and Lehi & his family, journeying through the wilderness, are similar examples. They detail the lessons learned and strengths gained as their struggled  along the way.
Lucky for you, if you’re at a place in your life where you need to finally start your own Pilgrimage, I’m here to share what I’ve learned along the way. While you will have to have your own experiences, learn your own version of “all in” and go through whatever it takes, hopefully you can learn from my example and do it in a better fashion than I did. And that, my friends, is my invitation to you!

So, let’s get started by breaking down the process of creating your therapeutic wellness package which will give you your own set of tools with which to spectacularly navigate through your Pilgrimage.

First, let me explain the concept of wUpiiwUgo: whether you’ve had the opportunity to recognize how this works in your life already, the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to realize that ultimately the effort you put in directly affects what you’ll get out of this process and will make your Pilgrimage so much less a struggle from the beginning if you don’t fight things and recognize hard work works better.

The Process: because timing is everything and we’re all at different points on our journey, coming from different upbringings and experiences and needing to re-learn different things so we rebuild a strong foundation so we can make significant distances, I’m a firm believer of doing things as they come at you, not necessarily going through the process the same way as everyone else or making out some huge plan or a bullet journal that details out everything you’ll be doing. This essentially removes the fluidity needed so you can learn things at just the right moment for you. So, my suggestion would be to read through all of the parts of the process and then go back and start with Part 1 and let things naturally unravel from there. It’s kind of like starting a recipe without reading all the way through, only to realize you’ll need something from the store, but can’t step away from the baking process once you have things in the mix…Also, I would suggest taking the whole Pilgrimage one small piece at a time. It’s been my experience that any time  I’ve started or tried to go full bore, almost at a manic pace, I’ve gotten overwhelmed and burnt out so quickly and it then took months sometimes to get back into the mode to even want to start again. Just like when someone wants to lose a few pounds so they throw out all their “bad” food, buy a gym pass, shop for a whole new athletic wardrobe, schedule all their workouts in their calendar, connect with a group for accountability, and then go once or twice before life starts to invade, they get exhausted and next you find them binge eating a tub of Phish Food. Going full steam ahead will not work for long lasting and meaningful change, especially when starting out and if you’re the slightest bit depressed or burnt out already. It’s far better to tackle one thing at a time, making little shifts and then adjusting along the way, and then continuing with more little shifts than it is to make grand, overreaching gestures that eventually, and usually, quickly fail. I’d bet the majority of us can name at least one, if not almost every, New Years Resolution we haven’t stuck with… but that’s a story for another post… remember the old adages:

slow and steady wins the race

by a yard it’s hard, but by an inch it’s a cinch

Oh! And remember to have fun! Get a vision into your mind & soul that this is the best road trip ever and that it is with your best friend (pssst – this is you!!!) and that it is meant to be enjoyed…  (Wo)man is that (s)he might have joy!

Part 1: The Legend (aka you)
Part 2: The Atlas (the bigger picture)
Part 3: The Map (your vision)
Part 4:  Detours (they will happen)
Part 5: The First Lane Change (yaaaaaah!)