A dear friend, who is also the Rebbetzin (Rabbi’s wife) at a local synagogue, recently inspired me to look deep inside myself and reassess how I’m serving my community.

Much of the time we try to cater our services (volunteer or businesses) to what we think the community needs. We research and poll others to determine exactly how people seek to have their needs met. My friend, for example, spent many months trying to design and host a monthly gathering for women that was based on the ideas and input of many of the women who regularly attended. The result were gatherings that never left her completely satisfied and often left her feeling exhausted from trying to please everyone. Eventually she gave up and quit hosting the gathering.

Over the last year my friend has been training to become a Hakomi practitioner. This training requires the student to work on personal issues and to become acquainted with themselves in an honest and intimate way. I have watched my friend blossom over the last year and when she told me last week that she was starting her monthly women’s gatherings again, I was curious what form they would take and how she might approach them with her newfound wisdom. I will find out for myself what they will be like when I attend the first gathering this weekend. As for how she’s approaching the process differently, I can tell you that now.

My friend described having an evolving revelation about how she relates to the the work she does as the caretaker and leader of feminine experience in her community. Why? She tells me it’s because she’s becoming aware of what she has to offer as a unique individual. She has realized that in identifying her gifts and skills, she can create a gathering that is imbued with energy and wisdom. Besides being able to give something that will, I am certain, be healing and educational for others, she is also more excited and satisfied than I have ever known her to be!

I have been inspired to rethink my own approach to serving others in my private practice because of my friend’s example. To assist me in this reassessment I am asking myself the following questions on a daily basis (you can come up with your own questions or use mine as a jumping off point):

1. What am I naturally good at?

2. What excites me and gets me motivated to take action?

3. How can I use my unique gifts to help others?

4. When people compliment me, what are they saying they like about me? (this question is not about how others view me but about what I do well naturally and in an embodied way)

and finally

5. If I could do anything I wanted with my life, what would that be?

While I have just begun to answer some of these questions, I am already getting a clearer picture of how I want my private practice to evolve. And I’m realizing that it doesn’t have to conform to anyone else’s ideas about what private practice is (as long as I practice in an ethical way, of course). The exciting thing about all of this is that I have new energy to funnel into my practice and I believe this will attract the people who will most benefit from my unique way of inspiring and creating psychological and spiritual healing. Ultimately, that has the power to benefit every one!

My wish for every one today is: Find your bliss, embody it and people in need of your services will show up to receive your offering!