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Creekside Inspired Intention

Posted on by Julie Korotkin

Yesterday, while I was driving up to Red Rocks for a hike, I got the news of the mandatory, state-wide, stay-at-home order put into place by Governor Polis of Colorado.  I had left my house to get fresh air and a break from my family.  I arrived hoping the park would be relatively empty; it was not.  There were people hiking and biking everywhere.  The trails were visibly crowded; so I left and started driving up Bear Creek Canyon.

I found a little spot down an embankment. right by the creek.  It was perfect, beautiful, and peaceful.  Being the creature of nature that I am, it took me a few minutes to pick my spot and first settled onto a rock sitting upright, legs crossed.  It was so grounding and peaceful; it was such a huge blessing in the moment.  The creek was running fast and cold. It was so loud that I could not hear the traffic on the winding canyon road above. 

Open eyed meditation quickly became my state of being, absorbing all I saw.  I was so moved by the experience that I instinctively began chanting, “Thank you for the sun.  Thank you for the leaves.  Thank you for the water…”  I sunk into a deep state of gratitude and peace.  I could see and feel the earth pulling all of the negative energies downstream, reassuring me that she has me.   There was a lightening of my body, energy was clearly flushing away and creating space for love and peace.  

I moved to another pair of rocks that provided a perfect lounge chair.  The sun was setting and the reflection consistently shifted across the surface of the roaring creek.  It was stunning and gratitude for nature filled me again.  Feeling the cool rocks against my skin, the breeze through the canyon, and hot late-day sun truly nurtured my spirit in a way nothing but nature can.

Gazing directly across the creek, with my feet and knees in view, I stared at the water where it was crashing down rocks; noticing that the splashes were never exactly the same.  The water simply flowed and flowed – never stopping.  This is definitely not the first time I’ve watched a creek flow.  It’s a regular activity for me.  There was something different this time.

Sitting inside the beauty of nature, totally at peace, one with the earth and myself, feeling love,  it occurs to me that this same perfect beauty I am sitting within, bringing me such a gift in this moment, is also the source of the Corona Virus circulating the globe.  The earth released this thing into our world and is changing life as we know it.   

Then, sinking further into the experience of nature’s perfection and flow.  I hear that this is all divine timing, divine messaging, and we are receiving it from mother nature via this illness.  I heard, “I’ve sent this virus to you to let humans know that they have missed something along the way.”  We are being awakened, now.  Whether we like it or not.

Will we flow like the creek?  Or will be be self-centered, vengeful, fearful, and greedy?  Will we stop and consider the necessity of community to make it through this time?  Or will we lock-in and hoard toilet paper, guns, and ammo?  Nature is giving us such a perfectly beautiful opportunity, to become just like the creek and be in flow & union with everyone & everything it serves along its path.

My mission, during this time, is to be in service to myself, my family, and my community.  If there is any way that I can support you or your family during this time, please contact me.  To be of service right now, I want to offer an intention for unique time in human history.  The format of the following intention is very specific, and learning how to create an intention in this way is part of the training inside my coaching programs.  It is a valuable and powerful tool for everyday living.  

Having an intention for this moment invokes peace for me, as I hope it does for you.  Please feel free to adjust as it suits you.

I create health, peace, and unity for all of humanity while being in gentle allowance of all that arises during this unprecedented time. 

Sending you, your loved ones, and everyone in the world much love, light, and health.

Freakin’ COVID-19 and Opportunity

Posted on by Julie Korotkin

I, like you, have been riding the waves of a global pandemic.  This life-altering time has been a painful gift to humanity.  In my mind, COVID-19 ripped off a thick scab covering a festering, oozing infection of rage, hate, fear, violence, ignorance, and intolerance.  So, on top of facing uncertain quarantines, the crashing economy, and an invisible enemy, our society has now been presented with civil unrest and violence in the streets.  I weep for us and our children right now (often).  And again, I know deep in my soul that it’s all a gift.

How you say?  

  • It’s a gift that has brought us to remember and be a part of community.
  •  It’s a gift that has shown us who our true friends and loved ones really are.  
  • It’s a gift that has opened the doors for us to return to nature, breathe fresh air, and be outside.  
  • It’s a gift that’s given us the opportunity to pause and see where our opportunities for growth truly lie.

Now more than ever there is a time for introspection and getting to know yourself on a deeper, more loving, personal level.  Is this something you’ve been doing?  Or perhaps it’s something you struggle with accomplishing?  

Given all the external stressors right now, it makes perfect sense if your personal development hasn’t been at the forefront of your mind. In fact, many people are struggling with anxiety, depression, resurfacing substance abuse, weight gain, etc. Again, there is time right here, right now to turn off the painful path of ruminating, being tearful, or wishing for an escape! You can, instead, choose to steer yourself into a place of optimism, strength, hope, and inner peace. If you are struggling, then maybe now is the time to invest in yourself and consider some simple guided visualizations or a deep dive into 1:1 coaching.

If you or someone you love is struggling right now, I implore you to seek support during these very troubled and stressful times. Humans are not designed to go it alone. We need each other more than ever. Please feel free to use me as a resource. I am here to serve.

Time for Coaching or Psychotherapy? How to know…

Posted on by Julie Korotkin

Coaching is such a huge buzz word lately isn’t it?  When I hear the word coach, I’ll admit the first thing that comes to mind is an older man in khaki pants, baseball cap, sports team jacket, headset, and screaming with a crazed look on his face!  So it’s kind of funny that’s what I see in my mind, and yet I offer “coaching” in my business. 

There are many ways to view coaching, and coaching can serve many purposes.  For this article, I am speaking about coaching here, at Evolve Journey™.

Let’s take a look at what Coaching is not:

  • Not psychotherapy
  • Not about winning a game (at least in the Evolve Journey context)
  • Not about spinning around in a story about your life, yourself, or other people
  • Not about living and loving as a victim

Now it is true that I’m a trained and licensed psychotherapist. That training was the beginning of my career path; and it informs my work – no doubt.  It also gives me a very powerful foundation from which to work as a coach.  Unfortunately, I did not enjoy being confined to boundaries set-forth for the psychotherapeutic relationship.  It was important to me to have a transformational, long-lasting impact that supports my clients in a way that differs from the outcomes in psychotherapy.  Plus I wanted to be me; not a prescribed version of me, the real me! That being said, to me, coaching is:

  • About intentionally working towards your personal evolution
  • About getting real and honest 
  • About taking action even when it’s uncomfortable 
  • About busting through fear and becoming courageous
  • About accountability 
  • About getting to know yourself so well that decisions come with ease
  • About total empowerment over yourself and your life
  • About having a guide, mentor, and partner to support you at becoming your highest self
  • About purposefully and intentionally creating a way of living that works for you

Can psychotherapy be transformational?  Absolutely!  Having a deep understanding of yourself, the dynamics of childhood upbringing, and how that informs you today can be a critical factor in long-term life satisfaction.  There are tons of other goodies and benefits people get from psychotherapy.  Unfortunately for many (me included), people participate in psychotherapy for years and years and continue find themselves unhappy, dissatisfied, unclear, having poor relationships, and living with general malaise.  So when is psychotherapy more appropriate than coaching?

  • When mental & emotional health symptoms are consistently out-weighing your ability to take care of yourself and keep yourself safe
  • When day-to-day coping skills are absent or at a remedial level
  • When you find yourself in crisis on a regular basis
  • When you have active Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an active psychotic disorder, active substance addiction or other severe, unmanaged mental illness symptoms.

If you are experiencing any of those in the list above, please yourself a therapist.  Those kinds of struggles cannot be addressed without support of a professional.  If you are having a hard time finding a psychotherapist to work with, please contact me, and I will help you get connected to resources.

Now the question becomes when is the right time for coaching?

  • When you are in a stable frame of mind that supports you going to work on yourself for the purpose of personal evolution
  • When you know there is so much more for you in life and you don’t know how to get there
  • When you are ready to look into the dark parts of yourself, know them, understand them, embrace them
  • When you are eager to gain new skills and reveal your highest and best self
  • When you are ready to create a life you love
  • When you are facing a transition in life
  • When you are committed to living into the greatest version of yourself

So where are you?  Is this a time for a solid psychotherapeutic relationship to help you grow from severe mental health struggles, develop basic coping skills, and improve your communication?  Or are you in a place of strength and ready to dive right into creating a life you love?  If you are ready and want to find out if Evolve Journey’s offerings are a good fit for you fill out our Awesome Life Assessment Call application today!

Visible Body

Posted on by Julie Korotkin

Everyone’s been talking about their plans for 2020 and this new decade. Well for me, this year is all about VISIBILITY!  This blog post is the most visible I have ever been, so bear with my anxiety and nervousness as I launch into this decade with some super duper vulnerability.

My intention for sharing post is to inspire courage, faith, and the pursuit of self-love & health while standing peacefully in the flow of whatever arises from those who interact with its content. Each of us has a different experience along the way, and I encourage you, the reader, to stand in curiosity, openness, and kindness as you read this content. Let’s fill the world with love and stomp out the hate we are seeing all around us.

As a guide for anxious young adults and to serve others in their personal development process, I am committed to the pursuit of my own personal evolution.  I have spent many years working on myself through a variety of personal development tools.  In fact, I use my own Model of Holistic Well-Being™ on a daily basis to maintain balance and engage powerfully in my everyday life.

One of the greatest hurdles in my life has been my relationship with food and my body.  And since “body” or the physical self is one of the layers to living a life of Holistic Well-Being, I take responsibility to heal and evolve that part of myself when it calls. 

In the past, truth-be-told, I was horribly mean to myself, particularly with regards to my physical appearance.   For many years, my M.O. was full of diets, pills, body crushing workouts; I was alway pursuing the skinnier, more toned, perfect sized and shaped me.  It resulted in anxiety, lack of confidence, lack of a sense of power, and low self-worth.  The struggle with my physical appearance drove me into the depths of self-loathing.

Sometime in 2017, I shifted my approach.  I could hear my body talking to me; asking me to please let it be how it was.  It asked me to find love, gentleness, kindness, and acceptance for it.  I heeded its call and put down the diets, juice fasts, insanely pressurized workout programs, all the fads and junk and got real.  My healing journey led me through work with an amazing emotional eating coach. It was powerful and awesome; yet something was still missing.  I was still not completely loving my body.  It didn’t feel healthy and well, even though many things had changed.  There were more “cuts” at this body evolution to be made.  

The next step was functional medicine.  This work helped me completely revamp my gut which resulted in being more clear headed, able to focus, and less emotional, and healed some serious digestive imbalances in my system.  The best part was that I dropped over 35 pounds with very little effort!  And there was one major component missing from my transformation. I felt this nagging that some energy needed to be dispelled. I needed a new vision of myself; this is something I could not create on my own.

Determined to shake this off before the end of 2019, I had been eyeballing therapeutic body painting as a creative, fun, and certainly threshold pushing experience.  So I took a leap and invested in this final piece to my body image healing with Mythica Von Griffin of Neon Buddah.

 My intention for the painting experience was to eliminate any remaining body image issues and walk away with a new vision of my physical self.  Going into the session, I was very nervous and really didn’t know what would show up.  Others who had this experience in the past said it was relaxing and hypnotic; that the touch of the brush was soothing and amazing.  They told the truth.  What I didn’t know was how much more, above and beyond my initial intention, I would gain by stepping courageously (and completely naked in front of strangers) into this work.  The results I got were profound.

  • A completely new view of my body
  • A new appreciation for my body, that is shifting to adoration
  • A renewed, loving, healing connection with my reconstructed hip
  • Healing of wounds between me and my son and his hip
  • New practices in my daily living
  • A more potent, deeper connection between my mind, body, and spirit 
  • Deep gratitude for this physical vessel

I wanted to share because so many of us struggle with our body image – men and women alike.  Here in the West, we have seen so many altered images of the human form that many of us strive for a to create an unrealistic physical manifestation of the physical self.  I look back now and wish I had understood the truth about the physical manifestation of the body and its relationship to spirit.

The body is a container for our infinite souls, and we get the privilege of having a human experience because of that body.  Our physical appearance can be altered, manipulated, decorated, and adorned in many different ways, and the definition of physical beauty varies from culture to culture.  To me, the key is finding what works best for each of us to create, define, and adore our own beauty; looking deep inside of ourselves for that answer rather than the next social media post or billboard.  Ready to dive deep into yourself and subconscious so that you create your best life?  Apply for Your Awesome Life Assessment Call today.

  • What if you had the awareness and confidence to create your body and your life in the way that suits you?  
  • What if you developed such a deep inner knowing of yourself that any external forces attempting to steer you away from your greatest life feels like a speck of dust you could blow off of a shelf?
  • What if you could powerfully face anxiety and fear?
  • What if you developed a sense of self-love and self-worth that could not be shaken?
  • What if you knew how to use a profound, powerful, and simple tools to help you navigate the waters of life with ease?

In Evolve Journey’s 108 Days to Your Freakin’ Awesome Life™, our work together will flip all of those gnarly ways of being  (Oh and believe me, I get it!) on their head and transform your world into one of peace, confidence, empowerment, and healthy focus.  If the thought of creating a life you love lights you up, please apply for Your Awesome Life Assessment Call, and if you qualify we can connect!

Body Painting in Process

Powerfully Transformed

Sharing these images was not easy.  In fact, it has taken me a long time to get this post out into the world. I hope you gained a bit of courageousness, self-love, and compassion by reading. Let’s reach for our highest and best selves and transform this world into a more generous and kind place to live.

When was the last time you were courageous, and pushed through your fear threshold?  When you choose a guide, mentor, or coach for yourself do you want someone courageous, who has taken the steps to create a life she loves? Do you want a life full of up-leveling awesomeness?  Contact me, I am here to serve.

Photography by: Tim Overhultz, Diamond VIP Photography