Jolyn
- Moving to England by myself - What I learned: I experienced my first true feelings of homesickness and loneliness. I got to experience a lesson in perseverance and how loneliness can often lead to an openness to new relationships.
- Owning an animal - What I learned: That unconditional love and support can come from something other than a human.
- Having a child - What I learned: I experienced both fear and love in ways I never knew could exist. It has also challenged me to be a more compassionate, patient person and highlighted that I am far from perfect which is ok. Trying our best is all we can do.
- Meditating - What I learned: meditating is more challenging than I thought and taught me more than I expected. One of the most powerful things I have learned is how to distance myself in the midst of conflict (I call it watching from a tv screen) in order to be more rational and clear.
- The process of training for a race/physical challenge (ironman and rim to rim) - What I learn: we can do more then we think if we take small baby steps to reach a goal.
- Back packing - What I learned: The importance of simplifying your life, being one of nature and moving your body and living with less can produce a true peacefulness.
- Helping others (Passing out bags of food to people who are homeless or any Open event) - What I learned: We are part of a bigger world and our place of privilege brings responsibilities that we need to work on fulfilling.
- Getting a new job and starting a non profit - What I learned: The vulnerability of feeling incompetent and how to ask for help and take small steps to learn and grow.
- Listening to speakers (Oprah and Ellen) or live music (Michael Franti) - What I learned: Howe much others can inspire me to look at my life and be better/more fulfilled.
- Trying a clairvoyant - What I learned: The benefits of forcing myself to open up and try something that I don’t think I believe in and/or make me feel uncomfortable.
- Traveling to a place of historic significance (Africa) - What I learned: How history effects our current situation. By understanding how other people has struggled in the past, we can start to make changes that will better the world.
- Playing competitive soccer - What I learned: I learned the importance of hard work, discipline, working with others who have different strengths and weaknesses and communication.
- Road trips with girlfriends - What I learned: the importance of taking breaks for your day to day responsibilities.
- Unplanned adventures: Jan and I have taken kk and Landon on 24 hour unplanned adventures which only require a good attitude and an openness to the unknown. - What I learned: - Taught us the power of the attitude.
Jan
- Moving to Australia by myself
- Taking a leave from teaching and traveling around the world for a year
- Backpacking
- Hiking Grand Canyon rim to rim
- Having children
- Skydiving
- Silent Retreat
- Therapy (Mary Ruth sessions)
- 1/2 Ironman
- Long bike rides
- Learning about the spirit world and the connection
- Seeing Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah
- Experiencing the depth of hell watching people I love deal with depression and anxiety
- Meditation and the connection to source
- Travelling to the mountain villages of Guatemala
- Volunteering for Crisis text line listening/helping strangers deal with heartache
- Yoga with Beverly Jane
Tara
- Participating in competitive gymnastics which solidified my lifelong love of being active
- Leaving home to live and study in a different country
- Traveling (alone and with my husband)
- Suffering through heart break to find a partner who is my perfect match
- Caring for/training/fostering a pet
- Setting aside fear to connect with women who I admired but who intimidated me
- Learning to live one of my favorite quotes, "you get from life what you have the courage to ask for."
- Reading
- Writing and delivering a eulogy
- Setting and achieving a goal (physical and professional)
- Volunteering to be a "Girls on the Run" coach
- Learning to quilt
- Getting good at making Shutterfly picture books
- Journaling (and at the end of each year, printing my journal in a book format)
- Taking the Myers Briggs personality test and learning about the strengths and challenges of my ISTJ personality type
- Creating and maintaining traditions (ie. solo, athletic challenge on my birthday, memorial Ty/Dad hike with Jo, Christmas crab feed, Tahoe weekend, Oscar night feast with Scott)
Angela
- Having two sisters
- When my dearest friend Aimee died suddenly when we were 38
- Interning and living in DC when I was 20
- 9/11
- Working at RCEB
- Co-chairing People First
- Infertility
- Having/raising a son
- Snorkeling in the GBR and basically everywhere I've snorkeled - it's another world
- Moving into a management position and then walking away from it
- Kayaking in the Pacific Ocean in Costa Rica
- Leading a Heart Walk Team of 40+ people
- Planned a client's funeral that became an unexpected reunion and an unexpectedly epic life lesson about the impact people have on each other that they often don't realize
Christy
- Living abroad
- Living in a country where I’m not fluent in their native language/learning a language
- Getting initiated into a spiritual lineage/studying yoga & Tantra under a guru and in a community
- Yoga teacher trainings—but most transformational was the 200 hour YTT at YogaWorks
- Earning my Master’s degrees (and actually all education)
- Going back to school as an adult
- Getting a retail job as an adult after having a career
- Changing career paths
- Marriage/ marriage counseling
- Separation/Divorce/moving out
- Having kids/raising kids (the growth continues)
- Learning how to live on my own again/be self-reliant after 15 years of marriage
- Attending ayahuasca ceremonies and experimenting with other mind-altering drugs
- Sitting by myself at a bar and leaving my cell phone behind on purpose (sounds stupid, I know, but it was very hard for me!)
- Traveling alone
- Writing
- Reading—I could list some books that accelerated my growth
- Learning how to receive
- Hiking alone. Lots of hiking.
- Learning a new skill (like playing an instrument)
- Yoga philosophy classes
- A daily meditation practice
- Therapy
- Heartbreak
- Bearing witness to my father dying
- Hearing the stories of my family members and being able to understand their choices and feelings more objectively and with more compassion
- Slowing down and appreciating the present moment
- Exposing myself to cultures different than my own—I.e., interviewing a Muslim man and attending a Ramadan celebration at a local Islamic Center
- Befriending people of diverse backgrounds and being curious about their beliefs and traditions, etc.
- Picking up on guys (and getting rejected!)
- Doing stupid things and realizing later how stupid they were and making up my mind to never do those things again
- Failing (at anything)
- Interviewing for jobs
- Rock climbing in Yosemite
- Cutting my hair/not wearing makeup in public—basically trying to dis-identify with my physical form
- Exploring my sexuality with different types of partners
- Doing equity work and voluntarily joining in “courageous conversations” about race and gender issues in order to examine my biases and dismantle systemic racism and sexism, etc.