My top transformational teachers of 2012

When the student is ready, the teacher comes along.

So goes the saying.

This has been a year of profound transformation for me - in terms of work, money, creativity and self-image. And I really wanted to share with you some of the teachers who have helped me along my path.

Each one has earned their place in my heart by providing a nugget of life changing wisdom, but many have given me a bucket load of tools.

1) Leonie Dawson - Joining her Goddess circle exactly a year ago is the number one thing that has changed my life. Her business course. Her free flowing creativity. Her liberal use of turquoise, sparkles and zany Ozzie English. Her piece "You have permission" - you can read it here and also download her free MP3 -it made me laugh out loud and cry into my Cornflakes - almost simultaneously!

You have permission to say no whenever you like, however you like, in whatever kind of voice you like, without feeling like only Mean Girls Say No and Nice Girls Say Yes. That’s bull. Yes and No have equal weighting – what’s important is if you use them when they are the best thing for you, not out of fear, obligation or guilt. 

You have permission to know that Yes is powerful, and so is No. The power comes from you using either from your highest spirit and truest integrity.

You have permission to suck at a wide variety of activities. It’s okay. You make up for it with your million other brilliance particles. 

2) Chameli Ardargh of Awakening Women. A soft spoken Scandinavian yogini. She is the embodiment of gentle, empowered femininity. I adore her way of thinking about meditation:

Meditation not about forcing the mind to be empty but simply becoming receptive to life force.  Feel yourself melting into receptivity like warm honey entering you. I like to think of it as taking Shiva as lover. 

Usually we reach and grasp outside for what we want. Instead follow the yearning back inside, find the feeling that it emerges from, feel that and it will connect you to Source. 

As women we have learned to take power on male terms in a male dominated world. We have had to build up armour to survive. We believe WE must do it, that we are alone. We become opaque not translucent. This blocks love and receptivity to receiving. Learning to receive puts us back into contact with the source and our own power.

3) Mark Silver transformed my view of making money. I came across him in Molly Gordon's free telesummit for self-employed people and he changed my world...

If you're charging your right price it means you can sustain your family, and keep doing the work you want to offer the world. Charging the right price keeps you sustained in your creativity. 

If your business is sustainable you are helping to sustain your community - small businesses are crucial for local economies. 

If your heart centred business is part of the economy, the more it gets visible, then that's money that's not getting spent somewhere else – healing our economy – we are the tiny seeds of change in our economy – helping to shift it towards something more life affirming.

4) Indigo Bacal, founder of the wonderful Wilde Tribe - her effervescence, her gentle wisdom, ability to ask profound questions, the collection of women and depth of interviews on the Wilde Tribe really touched me - I sent her a copy of my book in gratitude!

5) Sage Lavine, I am currently doing Sage's Purpose 2 Prosperity course, having got a great discount via Wilde Tribe. She gets at our underlying assumptions and beliefs about both purpose and prosperity and guides us through the creation of our own vision.

We are our grandmothers prayers answered. 

When we each say yes to doing our own unique piece of the purpose puzzle, our part, it un burdens us from our felt responsibility to save the planet, then we can join together and do it together.

6) Flora Bowley - for getting me back to painting using her brave intuitive painting technique on the Bloom True e course - which is also a wonderful life process. I did her e-course back in February and she's running it again in June. She has just launched her first book: Brave Intuitive Painting which adds to my love and understanding of her paintings and technique.

It is quite possible that a great breakthrough is waiting patiently for you just beyond your fear.

7) Jen Louden  I loved Jen from her books The Women's Retreat Book and The Pregnant Woman's Comfort Book. I chose her teaching course, Teach Now, to get me back in the saddle, and have not been disappointed. For me the greatest resource is the number of teacher interviews with master teachers like Parker Palmer,  Flora Bowley, Christina Baldwin and many more. She speaks to the different soul levels of teaching which is what had been missing from all my previous teacher training.

Try on the possibility that you are more a teacher than you have known, and it is more profitable and sustainable than you have previously imagined. 

 Imagine your lineage of teachers behind you – the teachers, books, courses, family – supporting and creating you as you are now – embrace their encouragement to you and the wealth of knowledge they have.

8) Peruquois I came across the deep feminine wisdom of Peruquois in her Truly Woman video series, via the wonders of Facebook and You Tube - a singer and teacher of immense power, her spiritual understanding of women's bodies and sexuality is unsurpassed.

9) Claire Zamitt - whose Feminine Power e-course materialised at exactly the time I was planning my own! I didn't do her course but have gained so much from hearing her talk in various free telesummits.

One of the core principals of feminine power: we cannot become ourselves by ourselves, we need to grow together 

We feel ourselves 10 months pregnant with something huge – transformation for ourselves, our world, our creativity.  

We feel the gap between the potential for who we are and our ability to realise it –we believe that power is outside of us – we believe that we are too busy, not educated enough, too trapped, but the real reason that we haven’t been able to bridge the gap is that we can’t access the sort of power and support that we need to achieve what we really want as women. Because we have been using masculine power.

10) Susannah Conway I came across via the incredible Only 72 deal (which is just about finished). She has single handedly reinvigorated my passion for blogging with her e-book/ course Blogging from the Heart and has helped me to see how to move forward, where before I felt stuck and despondent.

 A blog is a magazine of you, a place where you can curate your interests and visual inspiration.

11) Dreaming Aloud and YOU dear readers - the act of writing, creating and reflecting on this blog, the input from my readers and the friendships I have made along the way - thank YOU for all your wisdom.

I hope one, or many of these snippets of wisdom has been a light bulb moment for you. And that the offerings of one of these teachers might help you on your path too. Please do share it with all who might benefit from it.

Tell me, who have been YOUR teachers of 2011/12. Which of their words changed your life? Please do share them with us below!


Disclaimer: Lets talk money and credibility for a moment. I have found all of these people's work increbily powerful in practice in my own life. To me that gives them credibilty enough. They are experts at what they do. It is up to you to judge them and their work for yourself. I cannot be held responsible for your decisions.

They are all, it seems to me, honest people doing their work in service to the greater good of humanity. Some value this service quite highly in financial terms. I am personally working through many feelings about money and charging. I find some of their work costs more than I would be prepared to pay. I have bought courses with some, others I have just enjoyed via freebies on their sites, newsletters or on free teleclasses.  I am an affiliate of the Goddess Circle. I receive no benefit in kind from any of the others mentioned. All made it onto this list through merit alone. 

All paintings by me!


This is part of the Mindful Money series at Dreaming Aloud. Take some time to check out the other posts on...

Naming Your Price

Our Matriarchal Inheritance
The Blessing of Money
Guilt
Finding your inner entrepreneur
Transformational Teachers
Beyond Money