Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya Shakti.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Maya. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My dream and intention from very early on was to help and inspire others. It wasn’t until I took my first psychology course in high school that I finally felt I had a way of doing just that. Even though I was far from an ideal student, I suddenly found motivation and focus when it came to studying psychology. For the first time, I felt I was learning about something personal, relatable, and interesting like a window into the trappings of my own mind.
After receiving my Doctorate degree, I was excited to start working with individuals and completely immersed myself in creating, networking and building my private practice. It was an incredible experience to witness as my practice easily filled up within two years of starting. I felt really proud of myself, and yet something crucial was missing. I felt like I simultaneously knew everything and nothing at all.
One day as I was sitting in my neatly decorated office looking out the window on to a small outdoor garden my mind started to wonder and I found myself thinking “now what”? Why did I not feel fulfilled, even though I had achieved everything I thought I wanted? Everything seemed so put together, and yet lacked the essential ingredient and essence of me. I was probably the most bewildered out of my family and friends as to why I decided to leave my practice to journey to a foreign land, but at that time it felt like exactly the right thing to do, and unlike all the other times the weight of doing what felt right seemed like a life or death decision where I choose to live even if it meant killing off all that I had worked so hard for.
This journey led me across the world to a country I was not necessarily even interested in visiting before, but coming to India I got to experience life out of my comfort zone to say the least. Now my daily appointments were replaced by daily expeditions filled with new exciting places, people, and experiences. I started to feel like my old self again, the younger wilder me that would dance to the sound of my own music. On this journey, there was nothing to do, no one to impress, and just ample amounts of time to get lost in my own world. It was exactly what I needed in order to begin to take an honest look at who I really am and why I am really here.
While on my journey I got to experience alternative healing practices and enjoyed a wide range of insights and realizations that brought me closer to myself than I felt in a long time. The “talk therapy” in the states that I experienced was good, but now I got to dive much deeper than the talking. I experienced profound healing through various mind, body, and trauma release modalities. I now felt more alive, more connected, and more empowered with a fullness of joy I had never known before.
When I was ready to head back to California I felt refreshed, reborn, and committed to staying true to myself. Before I left, I had agreed to let the people who I was working with know that I had returned. I felt both excited and incredibly nervous, how was I going to do therapy with individuals when I myself experienced so much more profound healing through the alternative practices I found myself thriving on?
I started slowly and just allowed myself to be present to what was being brought up in my sessions with individuals. It was a very natural process, as I noticed what was becoming more and more helpful to my patients was actually my new way of being itself. This did not come from the books I studied, or techniques I was rigorously taught. Instead through my quiet time and meditation I would practice allowing my mind to relax and release tensions which allowed me to connect to my intuition. I would share this experience in my sessions with individuals and through guiding them to their own intuition I saw people blossom before my eyes. It was incredible to watch, and I felt extremely humbled by the processes of seeing individuals quiet their own inner fears, doubts, and anxieties to come out strong, excited, and empowered.
I guess I had to leave everything to gain back myself and the connection that would ultimately guide me back to psychology in a whole new way and approach, one I would describe as a bridging between Western psychotherapy and Eastern healing modalities.
My hope is that more people become exposed to the very healing modalities that have greatly impacted and enriched my life. That is why I felt called to collaborating with the very people that have contributed to my own healing journey to co-create The Rising Consciousness Center.
“A healer is not someone that you go to for healing. A healer is someone that triggers within you, your own ability to heal yourself”.
Rising Consciousness Center is healing alchemy at its best, and will transform the very relationship with your life and circumstances.It is not a solution to your problem, but rather, systematically getting out of your own way to illuminate that there was never a problem to begin with. Each of us is a powerful force whether we realize it or not, and our center supports lifts and inspires you to be your own special somebody. Through the tailored cutting edge approaches to your wellbeing, by not only one individual but a team managing your treatment, you will fully realize your own gifts and talents for ultimate expression of who you are.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road definitely did not start out smooth for me. It felt as if life itself was meant to be challenging, difficult, and hard or at least that was a big part of what I used to believe and perhaps perpetuate. Life seemed to be this battle that I needed to ‘fight’ my way through in order to survive. For most of my childhood it was fighting and working to pass tests that I never really felt made much sense, and later on it was overcoming all the curriculum that I did not feel connected to. Somehow, I made it through, but what I discovered was although I achieved everything I sought out to gain, the very way in which I went about it was so disconnected from my truth and self that when I finally sat at that future place, that I had only dreamed of, it felt rather empty. It felt as if what I thought I wanted, only to now realize it’s not what I actually needed. I feel for me; it was a perfect life lesson to really question what you think you want out of life. Often times we don’t even realize the influence others have on us until we get something we thought we wanted only to realize we were fulfilling others dreams and not listening to our own hearts.
This was a breakthrough for me, becoming outwardly successful showed me that although my family, friends, and colleague’s spoke highly of me it ultimately did not matter. What I wanted for myself was beyond what seemed successful, what I wanted for myself was a deep meaningful way of being. One that required all of me, and not just penciling myself in on the weekend, but a complete revamping of my life’s priorities to put myself on the top of the list instead of as an afterthought.
Now I would say life feels completely different. The struggle, difficulty, and hardships feel like a thing of the past. Of course, I still have challenges, but now I meet them with excitement knowing they are here to help me grow, if I allow them. With this new way of being and experiencing life it has become a play rather than feeling like such a struggle. I can finally just enjoy my life without feeling so much pressure from everyone else, myself included. Now I take life each moment by moment and do my best to show up as I am, not expecting myself to be somebody else for others. This time my life truly feels like mine to live, and that has made a world of a difference.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Rising Consciousness Center story. Tell us more about the business.
There is an African proverb that says “healing is a journey, heal and then live!” At Rising Consciousness Center, we are committed to supporting and guiding you on your healing journey, but the goal is not to be in therapy for the rest of our lives! Unlike other therapeutic modalities, at Rising Consciousness Center our work is not focused on giving you what you lack, rather we focus on clearing out ‘what you no longer need’. All the limiting beliefs, trauma, past conditioning, fear, doubt and all the things that keep you from truly showing up, open, and ready to be present to your life. By addressing the whole person, and removing the blockages this allows for healing and treatment to progress a lot faster, leading you back to what you came on this planet to pursue, love and living enjoyably.
What is unique about us is we work in a multi-disciplinary collaboration when you work with one of us, you get the rest of us as a treatment package, whether you end up seeing each person on the team or not. This way, we are constantly aimed at progressing the treatment from a whole person perspective so you aren’t missing any aspect of healing or have to go to 5 different places and people that aren’t necessarily communicating with each other which leads to a disorganized treatment approach that lacks integration, clarity, and results.
What I feel really sets us apart is that this is not your average one sided healing or service treatment. Rather, this is an intentional engagement of trust and a deep knowing that not only is healing possible, but that this intentional relationship is meant to re-establish your own inner guidance and healing abilities without the dependency on someone on the outside to constantly refer to regarding matters of your own well-being. Of course it is incredibly helpful in the beginning of any healing journey to receive guidance and support since past challenges, and current blockages can put us out of balance causing situations we have had to adapt to and even repress in order to survive. We than wonder why we don’t feel happy or why we feel so heavy. With your openness and willingness to go within, we will be able to find the method that fully empowers you to continue on your own, what we initially use to getting you back to feeling your best by shifting you from surviving to thriving so that you can set sail and feel empowered to take on whatever else life unfolds for your higher and higher expansion and growth.
“We were born to thrive not merely to survive”
“You were never meant to need anything outside of the completeness that you are. Let me show you how you are already equipped with everything you will ever need. Through our work together you will rediscover the intelligent nature of your intuition that will provide you a never ending source of continual guidance to tap into at your disposal.”
“My greatest joy is for you to take flight on your own, we need more people flying and inspiring others with courage to open their wings and fly!”
Thank you for letting me share my own journey, and my inspiration to see more people stepping into their power so that they too can shine their unique light and continue the chain of rising consciousness.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I have always felt guided towards exactly where I needed to be. Early on when that was in places and situations that did not feel entirely good, I may have called that ‘bad luck.’ Then at a point in my life when I felt tired of feeling tossed around by good or bad events, I decided to take notice during the ‘bad luck’ moments and acknowledge how I myself contributed to the situation or what I needed to do in order to acquire the strength necessary to move past it. I would say that was a pretty big shift in my life. One that took me beyond just seeing situations as good or bad to uncovering the more intricate layering of life where sometimes the very “bad” things have led to incredible growth.
I now prefer to just take notice quickly when the situation around me is heading south and utilize the various grounding techniques I have learned along the way to stabilize myself to cut through the mind blame and see a way beyond the noise. I may ask something like, “even though the situation is as such, how do I choose to show up and respond?” This very statement has empowered me beyond the ‘luck’ to learn from whatever is going on. Sure, good luck is great and bad luck, well we all probably want to get as far away from that as possible. I prefer going through my day not feeling either blessed or cursed, but rather enjoying the unfolding and trusting that whatever is showing up for me is exactly what I need in that moment, otherwise it wouldn’t be there. Even if its uncomfortable I somehow find those are even more opportune experiences to move me beyond my comfort zone into even greater growth than I myself thought possible. May we all find some enjoyment in the growth and risk discomfort for greater ease.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.risingconsciousnesscenter.com
- Phone: (310) 9026449
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Julie Branson
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