And so it is that Living One is my new beginning, complete with my own lotus-like, brightly-colored flowers that are ecstatic to finally be seeing the sun, but whose creation would be unlikely if not for the time I spent deep down in lotus land — stuck in the muck.

I am humbled to share with you the discovery that enabled me to see that like the lotus, I too, could emerge from the darkness. It began with the realization that deep under the surface, I had begun to feel victimized by my perception of life — a double-edged sensation that left me feeling buoyant at times, and like I was drowning at others. Hiding beneath a veneer of composure, I struggled not only with a lack of self-worth, identity and direction, but also with feelings of confusion, overwhelm, and really just a general dissatisfaction with myself. To counter this heaviness, I made it my business to engineer spectacular moments designed to make my daily life feel better, but hard as I tried, my attempts at creating a more satisfying future, were doing nothing to fill the void of my unhappy present.

These struggles came into sharp focus during my career as an elementary school educator. They brought to light the parts of me that desperately required gentle healing, and also set ablaze within me an immense desire to care for my colleagues and the parents of my students, who seemed in urgent need of change and nurturing. And then came my transition to parenthood, a muddy, messy affair that had me so stuck I didn’t believe I could get unstuck. But with the passage of time, I slowly began to see that somehow, the arrival of my two children had actually opened a door for me, a crack wide enough that it allowed my heart to begin breathing at its truest and most raw capacity. And, like the lotus — with its roots firmly embedded deep below the water’s surface — Living One miraculously began taking root, born of my own deep and very real struggles, a personal odyssey upward toward the sun, made possible only by my turbulent takeoff on the lifetime voyage that is motherhood.

That murky, lotus-like voyage — with all of its jolts, bumps and bruises — has jump-started my life in ways unimaginable, and left me with a valuable book of wisdom I otherwise couldn’t have acquired. I now know the kind of care that parents and educators need in order to feel supported as they forge their own paths toward a restoration of the natural human state of being — a long-forgotten place where it’s possible to feel daily joy, and to exist in an energy of wonder and awe powered purely by a feeling of excitement to be alive.

Imagine that.

And consider this. Boundless, wild, giddy, high-frequency joy is the state of being into which each of us was born, but which few of us can access any longer. It seems we’ve moved so far away from what should come naturally to us that we’ve become conditioned to think of joy as a choice — a privilege, or an emotion accessible only to those humans already traveling on personal paths toward healing. The truth is, we all possess a lifetime supply of joy, and no matter what has happened along the way, joy is always waiting in the wings, ready to take center stage when we allow ourselves to feel it. Still, it’s not as if we can simply flip a switch to silence the lifelong conditioning that has led to our often hungry desire for control, our extreme seriousness and inclination toward fierce competitiveness.

Therefore, we at Living One believe it’s become necessary to learn how to open up a pathway to joy so we can exist in peace and with purpose — a lesson we like to think of as human practice, an eye-opening concept whose time has arrived, and now, so have you! Indeed, could you ever have imagined finding yourself here, learning the practice of being human? We couldn’t either. Yet, here we are.

Our Tools for Living were designed to be exactly what I needed in my own home to help relieve pressure and to support myself and my family as we strive each day to envelop our inner and outer spaces with those ever-elusive treasures — joy and lightness. These Living One creations were made for you, too, and are my way of providing you with the same care and love that I needed. And though my journey may still feel slow and sticky — even excruciating at times — with assistance from our Tools and a newfound trust in myself, I am unafraid of keeping my roots firmly grounded in the dark mud from which they came. After all, it was the fortitude I discovered in that darkness which gave me the courage I needed to make my upward climb toward the light of the sun. And now, for the first time, I’ve begun experiencing how good it feels to trust that life is happening for me, and not to me.

So, here you are at Living One, a place where we come together to practice how to become more human. We’re glad you’re here because we know that when we practice together — not to make perfect, but to learn to be grateful for our own imperfect humanness — we can begin to see that restoring the joyful, playful, generous nature we were born with is entirely within our power. We practice together so that as parents and educators, and anyone else who cares for children, we can feel supported enough to fulfill the most important obligation of all: to grow closer to ourselves so that we can experience life at a frequency that makes it possible to truly steward the next generation of conscious, whole humans.

What do you think a simpler, more joyful daily life will feel like? Let’s find out together. This way in...

PS: You can always contact me directly at julianne@createlivingone.com

With love,