NICOLE NEACE

From Nicole:

“When I was younger, I was always curious — about people, the way they lived, what the insides of their houses looked like, the vacations they took, the shows they watched. I would find myself watching and observing others and how they moved through life.

As I became older, my curiosity expanded into more complex questions, and in time, those gave way to grand adventures.  In my time traveling through Southeast Asia and Africa, I remember being struck at the ways that humans on the other side of the planet could be so similar and so different at the same time.  The similarity was in our common spirit, our drive to better ourselves, the ways we love one another and the things that keep us up at night.  The differences were inspired by the notion that each interaction, choice, thought, experience, no matter how small, including many things that were chosen for us — each of these things could and often did change the entire picture.

In the end, I began to see life as a beautiful tapestry.  And the more I saw its intricate weaving, the more I wanted to understand it, to be present in the midst of it — really present, connected — to myself and those around me.  This birthed in me the desire to show up and walk along side people, personally and professionally, to be fully present with them and to share life. I’ve spent the better part of my adult life doing just that.

Here’s what I’ve learned and what I hope to give away.

Mental and spiritual work isn’t simply sitting in a space and “treating a problem.”

It is beyond interpretation or surface level behavioral change that might be interpreted as a solution to that problem. It is more than one person reflecting what they see or hear in another.

It is showing up.

It is staying.

It is being.

It is finding the pieces that make up your authentic, core self — historically, in the present moment, and in each continual moment that follows.

Together.

It is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts.

It is a nearly unnameable, radically human endeavor between two souls.

I’ll look for you there.”