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Barbara Veale Smith
For as long as I can remember, I've pondered the big questions: What's my purpose? What's the meaning of life? How best can I serve? In college, the words of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke became a guide: "Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Do not seek the answers, [but] live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." I look forward to talking with you about the questions that matter most in your life, through Contentment Coaching. You can read below about the path I took, as I lived my own questions. But Here's The Bottom Line: You can be content right now. Before one single thing about your life changes. If you're willing to pay attention to the one thing that doesn't change: attention itself. Your attention notices everything, but it doesn't have any content itself. It simply notices and accepts. Through our coaching conversations, you'll learn to recognize and rest into your body and your attention - which is the aspect of yourself that is contentless and aware - as a way to make change within yourself, in your world and in the world at large. This practice allows you to see more clearly what's stirring within you, and allows you to become clearer about from "where," "who," or "what" a decision or action of yours is coming. This is potent work. It is possible to live each day with greater ease. It is possible to live your potential. How we pay attention - and to what we pay attention - determines the frequency of our brain's activity, and thus whether we're experiencing judgement or acceptance, feeling hurried or spacious, anxious or calm, preoccupied or un-self conscious. Feelings of disconnection and division can be transformed, assisting you in living from your innate wholeness. . In coaching, I utilize principles from: the Realization Process which is a direct path to embodied nondual awakening. RP is a series of powerful but gentle, precise attunement practices for realizing your own nature as fundamental consciousness– an undivided expanse of luminous transparency, pervading your body and environment as a unity; Psychosynthesis (a form of spiritual nondual psychology); Open Focus™Coaching (based on neurofeedback principles); iRest™ (ancient teachings of Yoga Nidra presented in a form made accessible for modern-day living); and the wisdom gained from more than 35 years worth of contemplative and silent retreat experiences. Contact me by email or phone, to learn more about advancing your aims and to schedule a session. Attention is invisible yet clearly felt in its presence and in its absence, and I welcome the opportunity to share time and attention with you. Life Basics: Barbara is a two time graduate of Boston College, earning a BA in History and Economics in 1985 and an M. Ed. (Masters of Education) in Religious Education in 1994. She served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps from 1985 - 1987, working in the nonprofit sector and in religious education following the JVC. In 1988 she married Mark Smith and they have two children, Conor & Tara, who are now young adults themselves. Barbara began her teaching career in 1994, offering contemplative practices, and a love of the world's spiritual traditions to high school students. While raising her children, she was involved in a variety of professional endeavors utilizing her expertise in writing, photography, communications, marketing, and spirituality. Along the way, she founded Undefended Heart (www.UndefendedHeart.net), became a fully Certified Realization Process Teacher, a Certified Open Focus™ Coach, a Certified Psychosynthesis Life Coach and a Certified iRest™ Teacher. Barbara has had a contemplative/mindfulness practice for more than 35 years, and has been dedicated to silent retreat practice for the past 20 years. Barbara is a life-long learner and educator, with a passion for peace. She is committed to transforming consciousness toward the unfolding of a just, sustainable, peaceful planet. |
“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character and will. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.”
- William James (The Principles of Psychology, p. 463)
"All of your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be in vain if at the same time you did not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions." -Mahatma Gandhi |
