My daughter Shelby is named after a grocery store chain in Idaho. Odd perhaps for a kid that spent her childhood in Brooklyn, New York and now lives in Park City, Utah. “Shelby’s” is long gone but the legend lives on. Seemed like a good name for our first daughter.
Growing up, our Shelby always ‘followed the beat of her own drum’. We took a family vacation to Hawaii when the girls were old enough to appreciate it. To Kauai. Shelby loved it so much she returned soon after high school and worked as an aerobics instructor at the Kauai Health Club and at several of the major resort hotels there, the Marriott and the Hyatt. She really enjoyed what she was doing and loved the fact that she was ‘helping people’. I was impressed with this because it was obvious she was not on some self-serving short-term ego trip, she truly enjoyed helping people become and stay healthy. It became obvious to us that this purpose was her calling, and this calling was her purpose. Helping people.
Shelby naturally gravitated toward yoga. She really got into it. I even thought she was a little over the top with it. Yoga hadn’t come into its own yet as a mass medium for health and fitness. I wasn’t much of a believer in things like Werner Erhard’s EST training or Norman Vincent Peale’s ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’. Someone once told me I needed to read Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’. Maybe I should have but I didn’t. I thought these were all scams and fell into the category of Dr. Stillman’s water diet. But I became a ‘believer‘ when Shelby used yoga to save my life.
She literally saved my life.
I had had a chronic back problems most of my adult life. Not one to go to a doctor for every ache and pain, I suffered through all the routine muscle spasms, sprains, pinched nerves, etc. until it became overbearing. It was always something. Everything hurt, all the time. When one joint or part of my body was healing another was being injured. I was a runner and this just exacerbated the issue. But I continued to run because it was a ‘manly’ thing to do, it was a good exercise in discipline, and it helped keep my mind clear and my weight down.
As I got older the back pain became more chronic and I did see a doctor, a chiropractor, had an MRI, and nothing seemed to work to identify or relieve the pain, which was at a bearable level but sometimes unbearable. All they would tell me was to take it easy and try to keep my weight down. The healing processes for sciatica and tendonitis plagued me for weeks on end. I was looking for relief ...a last resort ...whatever it would be. Any kind of an operation, however, was completely out of the question as far as I was concerned. I’d just have to deal with the pain, manage it, and try to find a magic cure.
It was yoga. Shelby showed me some simple yoga stretching exercises and positions for my hip and lower back area. She explained what the problem was better than any doctor I went to, and gave me her diagnosis and prognosis. I felt 100% better the first time I did the yoga exercises. It was a miracle! Who knew?! Shelby knew. I don’t know how she knew all this, but she knew. I do these simple stretching exercises and yoga positions every morning for 20 min. and I’m good to go for the day. To me, it is truly a miracle after seeing doctors, having x-rays, trying to manage pain, etc. Truly a miracle to go from chronic pain to hardly any pain at all. I run every day. I fee like Lazarus raised from the dead.
Shelby moved into Kundalini yoga, Reiki healing, and now she is involved in Ascension coaching. As a father and a ‘manly man‘ this is a bit ‘out there‘ for me, but knowing Shelby and her talents and gifts, and her calling, I can accept this wholeheartedly. It’s not what I had thought, just all ‘hugs and loves’. Simply stated, Ascension strengthens the mind, body, spirit and soul toward a more complete, purposeful existence. A healthier existence. And if this works like the yoga worked on my back, I’m a believer and I’m all in.
Our society today is a lot more complicated and a lot more stressful than it has ever been. Things are generally getting tighter, harder, meaner, more worrisome. It’s easy to lose the plot these days, and lose yourself. Ascension coaching today would be like yoga ten years ago ...like exercise, like physical and mental therapy. Definitely a good thing. The only difference is that Ascension brings you to the here and now in your life and offers a calming peace so you can continue your journey with confidence, strength, and a clear mind to face whatever life brings, and whatever you want to bring into your life.
Check out this video shelby made, it will give you a sense of what she means by Ascension coaching. It’s all about helping you to find yourself, love yourself, and turn your life toward the positive.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
