Hiking the West Coast Trail - A Spiritual Journey

We’re going to start today with a PS. Unusual? Yes, but it works because it’s just a pre-script instead of a post-script. I say we can do things like that so here is the PS right off the top. 

On August 3rd (which is coming right up!), some colleagues and I are hosting an event that includes some light yoga to open the body, a transformational breathwork journey and then a crystal sound bowl healing to integrate. It’s going to be absolutely delicious and perhaps you’d like to attend. 

If you’ve ever experienced breathwork, you’ll know how powerful it is. 

9D Breathwork journeys are next level. They use all sorts of technology like binaural beats, isochronic tones, solfeggio frequencies and more to ensure participants experience permanent transformation. 

If you have yet to do breathwork, it’s the absolute best use of your time in terms of resolving issues, changing limiting beliefs and setting the stage for receiving more of what you want in your life. 

You get to move through issues that have been around for years, maybe even lifetimes, in just a couple of hours because we work with the breath and the body to release trapped energy rather than going into the stories of the mind. 

You’re invited to join us. 

For details on the August 3 Synergy of Souls event, click the link below.

https://www.christinamarlett.com/offers/G5t5F7qE/checkout

And now that we’re complete with the PS, here’s the spiritual journey part :)

Have you ever had something really profound happen in your life that kept you pondering and reflecting for days or weeks?

That was the West Coast Trail for me. So much happened on that trip from so many different perspectives. It was very juicy!

Today I’d love to share with you some insights from the adventure, along with photos from our trip. (Not too many. It won’t be like a slide show with a projector from the days of yore when there was a captive audience who couldn’t wait to escape the endless click of the slides advancing in the most painfully slow way possible. Those circular trays held A LOT of images.)

Instead, there will be just a handful of photos, carefully chosen from our much larger collection, with a corresponding brief reflection.

Moments of Presence

While driving home after we got off the West Coast Trail, my daughter Zoe said, “People are asking about the trip and I don’t know what to say. How could I possibly put into words what it was like?”

We all nodded in agreement. What do you say about 5 days of being immersed in the power of Nature, coming up against the very edge of your stamina, confronting fears along the way and having your jaw drop in awe over and over?

I said, “What I’m sharing is that it was thousands of moments of being fully present. Every step required utter focus.” (Because we navigated precarious boardwalks, rickety ladders, a heck-ton of mud, slippery rocks, fallen giants (Cedar trees), intricate root networks taller than we were… not to mention precious ocean and rainforest eco-systems. Presence was an absolute requirement, otherwise, injury could easily be the result.)

Just look at that thing formerly known as a boardwalk on the right!!! A lot of the trail was in shambles. Rusty nails protruded from these “boardwalks” and we wondered with every step if the structures would give way under our feet. It was a great exercise in trust. 

The Freedom of Letting Go

Going back to the beginning of the trip, one of the first spiritual lessons was that of letting go - literally. When you’re carrying everything on your back, each decision of what to take and what to leave behind becomes quite important. 

On the left you can see all the food we cooked and dehydrated for 2 weeks. On the right is everything that needed to go into our packs. So many decisions needed to be made! It’s very liberating to have only a few belongings available. What to wear? The shirt and socks that smell the least offensive and the same pants as yesterday. Done! 

Allow Yourself To Be Moved 

There were countless moments filled with awe, whether it was tunneling through a giant root system or looking waaaaaaaay down below while treading lightly on a wobbly suspension bridge. 

Everything in the WCT was epic whether it was the ocean, the forest, the climbs, the descents, the whales or the unappealing calls of the sea lions. Letting that “larger than life energy” in and knowing that we’re one and the same was an exercise in abundance and reverence. 

Relationships - A PhD in Spiritual Growth

You can do so much work on yourself but the way to know how it’s going is to be in relationship, especially with family. 

Sharing a tent for a couple of weeks with our teens put a magnifying glass on anything that wasn’t working. Whatever was bubbling underneath the surface was brought up into the light of day to be addressed. 

As the saying goes, it gets revealed to be healed. Having that awareness helped in those moments when a former version of myself might have taken things personally. Instead, that victim-y part of me didn’t show up and I was able to work through issues with an open heart and a win-win approach. 

We’re definitely closer as a result of being on the WCT together.

There you have it - a few insights and images from the trip. I hope they were helpful for you too. 

May you have a wonderful journey through your week, whatever you’re up to as we move from July to August. 

With expansive love and heartfelt courage,

Christina

>Creator of Courageous Self-Care

>So excited that breakdancing is part of this year’s Olympics!

>Wondering if you teared up like me during the Opening Ceremonies (over and over)… what a spectacular display of creativity and just full out going for it. W.O.W.

I wouldn’t say I’m an Olympic fanatic but I do enjoy watching selected sports. Even more than that, I like to know what’s happening behind the scenes. I like to learn what it took to get there or to make things happen so that I have a better appreciation of the people and their creations.

That’s why I can’t say enough good things about the mini documentary I discovered called Paris 2024 La Grande Seine. It’s a behind the scenes look at what it took to create the most gigantic spectacle of an Opening Ceremonies that’s ever happened.

These people dreamed BIG. (Gigantesque was the word they kept using, along with fou - crazy.)

I was moved to tears over and over by the audacity and imagination that went into every moment of the ceremonies.

Of course, now I have to watch them again because I know so much more about the deep meaning that was poured into each segment. 

It was so, so good. 

Here’s the link where you can find it. You can create a free account on Gem and then hopefully you will be able to access it. 

https://gem.cbc.ca/paris-2024-la-grande-seine

When I was a high school teacher back in the day, I ran the dance department. Actually, I was the dance department. I pretty much got to do whatever I wanted with the program and so I took it upon myself to create to full dance shows every year where I choreographed over a dozen pieces each time. 

It was ambitious, considering I had no background or training in choreography. Basically, I taught myself how to do it by watching a lot of dances and studying whatever information I could find on the topic. 

By the third year of my role, I was getting better at it. One of the things I loved the most was choosing the music. I was constantly listening for songs that would make great dances (and this was in the days before iTunes, Spotify, the Internet… you still had to go to CD stores and buy entire albums without knowing if you even liked what was on there).

Here’s a song that I choreographed a tap dance to for a grade 12 class. What I love about this music is that it’s just so fun. Every time we rehearsed, it was like a big party. I never got tired of this song and that’s saying a lot because when you choreograph a dance to a song, you get to hear it many, many times. 

It’s called Do What You Wanna (kind of a theme in my life) and this is the remixed version from Verve Remixed - a very cool album. Get your dancing shoes ready  - you won’t be able to sit still to this one.

Listen to Do What You Wanna by Ramsay Lewis on iTunes

Listen to Do What You Wanna by Ramsay Lewis on Amazon - because Spotify wasn’t working