I’m actually a bit surprised by the realization I’m about to share. Today I begin a retreat for the very first time……..as a customer.
Yes, it’s true! I have never attended a retreat as a customer. In my lifetime, I’ve hosted well over fifty. I’ve also been to many personal development seminars and conferences, but never a retreat without hosting or speaking myself.
What retreat finally got me to enroll? First, some back story. Would you expect anything different from me? I don’t do short posts! I love to write!
In 2021 I signed up to be professionally coached for the very first time. I had an inkling that I wanted to become an artist. As a life long entrepreneur, it scared me to embark upon such a major transformation. As a coach/mentor of reinvention, I knew what to do. I needed to find the courage. To accomplish this, I sought out an amazing artist that I felt I could learn from, and asked this person to mentor me.
The mentor I chose is a bonafide triple threat in Hollywood. In addition to becoming a respected Hollywood actress, she also has a career as a musician, who writes and performs her own music. A very talented script writer, she has a production deal with Amazon Prime to write and produce shows that she will also act in. Her mentor was none other than Prince. I am keeping her name to myself to protect her privacy.
Turns out she did some coaching as a side hustle, so she placed me in a small group with a handful of other aspiring artists. I was grateful for her mentorship, but a bit surprised that the subject she covered most, and heralded as the key to her immense success, was inner-peace.
She introduced me to a life changing book called “The Anatomy of Peace” by the Arbinger Institute. Before I began my journey as an artist in earnest, I desired to first delve deeper into this newfound arena. I decided to begin a presence practice as my next bliss journey. This was at the end of 2021.
Although my coach hand-picked me from the group to continue on in a one-on-one year long mentorship, I knew in my heart who I wanted to coach me on presence. It was my best friend and business partner Patrick Combs.
Patrick often shared with me privately how he spent seven years studying presence under a particular mentor who is considered by many as the most inspirational spiritual teacher of presence - right along side his holiness, the Dalai Lama. I tried listening to this particular mentors audiobooks, but could not get into his teachings. Looking back, I realize that I wasn’t ready.
Patrick would often share with me what a major impact this mentors teachings had on his life. He even occasionally brought some of this knowledge into our coaching sessions in Bliss Champions. This occurred when a customer would come into a coaching session in an emotionally triggered state.
When this occurred, I would sit back and watch in awe as Patrick would masterfully take over the call. He would help our agitated customer restore their calm by talking to them in a peculiar way. His words seemed so foreign, yet it was impossible to ignore their effectiveness.
Witnessing these moments, was like having a front row seat to a magician doing his best magic trick. All I could do was sit and learn.
After years of witnessing this, I decided I wanted to become the mentee and learn some as much of this wisdom as possible. I asked Patrick to coach me. In foing so, I became his first paying customer for Presence Practice coaching. I began my training in January of this year.
I just entered my eleventh month with Patrick coaching me. Next week I will meet up with him in person at an undisclosed location to have an in-person session to wrap-up our year together.
I have been so pleased with his coaching that I gifted him an opportunity to join me at a retreat with me this week. Unfortunately, he had dad duties that conflicted and he could not make it. So, I’m riding solo into my first retreat experience as a customer ever!
What retreat got me to break out my wallet and take the time to attend?
Today I begin a retreat in Maui called the “The Depths of Being”. The host is Eckhardt Tolle. As Mr. Tolle knows a thing or two about the subject of presence (and he was Patrick’s mentor that I was referring to above), I expect to learn a great deal that will help me grow my practice. He also keeps some pretty good company, so who knows what my first retreat experience will bring.
But, I would not have arrived at this point without my presence practice mentor Patrick Combs. So first, a shout out to my immensely talented coach. Sorry you can’t make it this week, but you will be with me in spirit every present moment I enjoy.
