So, you’ve read all the personal development books.
Thought all the positive thoughts.
You’ve recited every optimistic mantra you could find, even tried being hashtag grateful for the life lessons you learned from stepping in dog crap on your way to a client meeting this morning.
But while your thoughts may have changed, your outside life looks a lot the same?
Oh, and you’re fed up with airy-fairy personal development that’s all sugar and spice on paper but never seems to make substantial changes to your actual, real life?
Good, I’m glad you’re here. You’re among friends.
I’m Sukie Baxter. Writer of words. Battler of dragons. Tamer of wild horses.
I’ve been a professional healer for over thirteen years, but not, like, one of those healers.
You know, the type who blows a lot of rainbows and unicorn farts up your you know what.
I may be a healer, but I don’t necessarily buy into all the sweetness and light.
Personally, I think happy thoughts don’t mean jack if they’re just glossing over the real struggles in your life the way you might shove a pile of disorganized junk in your hall closet when relatives come over to visit (not that I would know anything about that, mind you).
I believe in positivity and relentless optimism, but I also understand that circumstances can constrain, that cultural constructs influence our perception of the world and ourselves.
I believe that unseen forces shape our decision making, and that acknowledging their impact is the first step in breaking free.
(Which is the work I do with my clients in their Prison Break Sessions, by the way.)
I believe in work that makes a difference.
I don’t believe in a “there” — a perfect place of bliss and utopian idealism. I don’t believe in a right way. I believe healing looks different for everybody.
In my experience — and that experience is ample — healing doesn’t look like faerie dust and dreams.
It’s messy. It’s sweaty. It takes effort.
How’d I get to be so jaded?
I used to be a normal person with a normal life. I grew up in a bland middle class suburban development. I got decent grades in school. And when I graduated, I went to college, as one does.
After college, I got A Job. Like, a real one. At a tech company. I was good at it. I negotiated a 40% raise in my first three months. But something in my gut was uneasy.