Finding Light was born in a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic to be specific if you’re reading this post in later years. It’s already changed aspects of our society that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago and we have no idea what will happen next.

But amidst the massive uncertainty that so many have struggled with, the opposite happened for me. A clarity and sense of purpose re-emerged, qualities that had long been absent from my life during years of struggle and my healing journey since.

Where did that clarity come from? The seeds had been planted over the course of many years, watered and tended long before I could finally answer the question that had vexed me for so long:

HOW could I tie together all the seemingly disparate pieces of my creative and professional life under one thematic umbrella that would apply to all of it. That thing that I was moving towards on all fronts. And how did it apply to what I most needed to learn or be reminded of every day?

The answers can be found in the past…

My journey towards Finding Light began in my 20s. Two separate events happened that would each have profound impact through the years in vastly different ways. The first was depression. By all accounts I was a happy child with a great upbringing. My parents loved me dearly and I grew up in an environment that fostered creativity, play, adventure, knowledge, and a family willing to support me in whatever I chose to pursue.

But a series of life events began in my teenage years that included severe scarring acne, a near-death experience in a very serious car accident (and 75 stitches in my face), my parents’ divorce, struggles in college, and the inability to find a job in the professional field I was pursuing. Those were precursors to the onset of full-blown depression by my mid-20s.

Though counseling and an upturn in various strands of my life brought relief and an uptick in my psychological baseline, depression would re-appear again several times on my journey. The most recent bout was the heaviest and longest chapter in my depression story.

But through all the pain of that struggle, I came to realize that the greatest tool for changing my perspective and thus my mood was my ability to find light in various forms. That happened through my photography and music and video and my podcasts and various other creative explorations. I found that “light” came in many forms for me, in what I’m calling the 5 Realms of Finding Light.

Backtracking to my 20s, a concurrent event to my depression would prove to be just as important to Finding Light. On the advice of a friend, I bought and read James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, a book that started me down my path of interest in what I’ll call the metaphysical. Or my own version of spirituality.

That path led to MANY more books and authors and concepts (from Tolle’s The Power of Now and Lynne McTaggart’s The Field to Deepak and Gary Zukov and David R Hawkins) to a decade of Kundalini Yoga to years of a daily meditation practice to reiki and sound healings and EFT/tapping and now starting to experiment with energy medicine and qigong and so much more.

And the tools and practices that came from all of that were instrumental in helping me see the light as I struggled with depression at times throughout and then my own divorce and several years of extreme levels of uncertainty on a self chosen path as a nomad (all of which I’ll eventually be writing more about). Through it all, I was able to find light.

Which brings me back to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a time when so many were struggling to see the light, I had the profound realization that I was ready to re-emerge from my own self-imposed sheltering and share my own superpowers and gifts with the world again. I can do that via my own creative explorations and by shining a light on and sharing the tools and practices that have helped me so much.

I was able to find light in the darkness. And now I want to help you do the same. Won’t you join me?