Greetings Friends!
We will be doing a weekly blog to better connect and share with all of you! These weekly articles will include things like helpful tips, ideas, research, key information, etc. on topics such as yoga, meditation, massage, nutrition, reiki, wellness, art, wholeness, health, inner peace, spirituality, mind-body-spirit wholeness, mindfulness, and other specialties of The Awakening Realm. We thought that the history / background of The Awakening Realm might be a good place to start.
We hope you enjoy and continue to follow us as we awaken each other and guide the awakening of humanity.
My name is Lisa Wing and I am the founder of The Awakening Realm. My personal awakening happened in 2012. I had worked at a pediatric therapy clinic for 11 years, when I first started working there it was just the owner and myself. 11 years later I was managing 3 locations and almost 30 therapists by myself. I was so stressed out, short-tempered and completely miserable. When I wasn’t working at the office I was working from home and yelling at my kids. All of my energy was being put into my work that I had no energy left over for my kids let alone myself. I had two failed marriages and I didn’t understand why I kept coming up short when I knew in my heart I deserved more in life.
I started meditating in 2012 to decrease some stress and everything started to change. I realized how unhappy I was with life and with myself. My own personal behavioral patterns and thought patterns presented themselves to me as I stepped more and more out of my monkey mind into meditation. I was able to see how I had created my reality and recognize where I needed to make changes. I gave up television and started educating myself. I knew changes needed to happen if I wanted a better life and I knew those changes needed to start with me and where I was.
I started to go into meditation with questions before quieting my mind. I realized that I wanted to help people like me. People that were busy parents with jobs, stressed out, unhappy and ready for or in need of a change. While on my inquisitive journey I attended my first yoga class. It was in the teacher’s beautiful country home and there were about 5 or 6 other ladies there. I cannot even describe to you how rejuvenated I felt, how full of light I was sitting up from that class. I thought to myself that if I could make one person feel the way I felt at that moment – that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I immediately searched for a yoga school that I could attend. I found Prana in Fort Wayne and signed up.
Meanwhile as I worked on my forgiveness and personal inner healing I realized my worth and I quit my job. I realized that if I were going to work so hard at running someone’s business, it should be my own. I was underpaid and unappreciated. They hired 3 people to replace me. I’d be lying if I said I completely stopped yelling at my children, but I can honestly say that I was getting better with patience and with talking things out with them. I was so hungry for this new knowledge that was actually ancient knowledge. I read as many books as I could.
My first day of yoga school I was late and I walked into a room full of fifty people, I scrambled to squeeze my mat in and immediately I freaked out. My thoughts consisted of “How am I going to be able to get some good one-on-one with a class this size? I don’t know as much as all these people probably do. What the hell am I doing here?” It’s very entertaining to me to look back and reflect. Today I’d walk into that room with no thoughts but only an ecstatic feeling to be doing yoga with that many people at one time! After the yoga class, the room cleared and there were only about 10 in my actual schooling class. The old Lisa took a big sigh of relief. I went home that night knowing that I was in the right place at the right time with the right people. Peace was already taking a front seat in my life. Yoga school changed my life in so many ways, but I can see now how much I was changing my life, I was the one making all the difference.
I graduated from yoga school in the fall of 2015 and immediately was offered a space to teach in South Bend. I had sold my house and moved, I had ended a relationship, so many changes that kept catapulting me forward, preparing me for the greatness I knew in my heart I was worthy of. I had the most amazing clientele in South Bend, they were the perfect people to share with all of the exciting things I had learned. As most of you probably know yoga teachers don’t get into this business to make money we do it to because we have a ton of light and love in our hearts that we want to share with others. December 2015 came and I had to make a choice between paying my yoga space rent or buying Christmas presents for my kids. Any mother knows we would never ask for our children to pay for our dreams, so I gave up the space.
I hit what I thought was a reality check at the time. I told myself to get my head out of the clouds and I signed up for real estate school. I wasn’t giving up on yoga, but I was giving up the idea of teaching it. While studying and focusing on moving forward like we all do The Universe / The Divine / God said “nope”. Spirit / The Universe sent me a person. A person who would ask me questions like why are you doing real estate? What would make you happy? Of course I said Teaching Yoga would make me HAPPY, I was doing real estate for financial stability. This person became my boyfriend and then gave me my dream, a place to teach yoga and to help others.
I named The Awakening Realm because I wanted to offer a safe place for the awakening process. I know when I was going through my awakening I was so hungry for knowledge, I had so many questions and it felt very lonely not knowing anyone like-minded. A place that is non-judging, a place full of love & light. A place people can come and ask questions, because no question is dumb. A place people can go to and cry and release the energy they no longer want to carry with them. A place where people feel comfortable to open their hearts up and heal. A place to find different types of practitioners and many different resources. A place for like-minded people to connect with one another. A place to renew, to self-empower, and to transform their lives for the better. I hope you all find a place like this, and if you are looking for one, please come visit us!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story on how The Awakening Realm came to be.
Love&Light