We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carla Macapinlac. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carla below.
Carla, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I think of risk as a muscle that has the capacity to support your overall wellbeing when exercised in healthy ways. The more you exercise your risk muscle through thoughtful, calculated risks, the easier it becomes to approach risk opportunities with less trepidation. And sometimes, the risks you take end up having such a profound impact that they mark a defining moment in your life.
During an extended family vacation to Hawaii in 2016, my husband arranged for a few ocean adventures that I initially thought would be fun and exciting. The first one was a daytime dolphin adventure. I am not a strong swimmer by any means, and I don’t remember having been that far out in the ocean since I was a child. After a brief panic attack as I tried to tread water, my brother helped me swim back to the boat so I could calm my nervous system. He sat with me as I considered whether or not I wanted to try again. I knew I would be disappointed if I quit right then, so I grabbed a pool noodle and went back into the water. This helped me to stay afloat without freaking out. Alas, I missed out on being in the water when dolphins swam close to our group.
The following day, we went on an evening manta ray adventure. This time I opted for the pool noodle as soon as our group was ready to jump in the water. I did not want to drown in the deep ocean, especially at night, with only the lights of the boat shining on the water. The experience ended up being magical, as I looked down into the ocean depths while manta rays swam around our legs. My husband even managed to capture video of a large manta ray as it opened its huge mouth to catch the bioluminescent plankton in the water.
On the final week of our trip, my husband booked surf lessons for me, along with my daughter and niece. This time I couldn’t rely on a pool noodle to keep me afloat. I was apprehensive about being on a surfboard by myself, particularly since my husband was staying on shore to take photos (he grew up in Hawaii and certainly didn’t need surf lessons). After receiving instructions on the beach and practicing how to pop up on our boards, I was having some trouble completing the moves quickly enough. I began to seriously doubt whether I could venture out into the ocean, stand on my board, and ride the wave back to shore without drowning in the process.
As we prepared to swim out as a group, I walked over to my husband to hand him my sunglasses for safekeeping. I was close to tears when I said to him, “Why are you making me do this??” He probably thought I was just being overly dramatic, yet a part of me wondered whether it would be the last time I’d see him.
After paddling out into the ocean, I tried to catch a couple of waves, looking pretty awkward, I’m sure. I fell off my board twice and watched as each wave rolled toward the shore without me. Meanwhile, my daughter and niece were catching waves like natural-born surfers. Finally I had one last chance to try, as our instructors told me to get ready for the next wave. I remember thinking, “It’s now or never”, so with all the determination I could muster, I paddled furiously, caught the wave, and popped up as well as I could. I wasn’t able to stand fully upright, but I did manage to get myself almost all the way up, riding that wave as far as I could before falling off.
It wasn’t perfect. It was nowhere near pretty. But for a few brief seconds, I was surfing. And it felt great. I tried to catch another one after that, which didn’t work out. But it didn’t matter. I was still proud of myself for pushing past my comfort zone and it was enough of an accomplishment for me. After all, I was 48 years old and it was my very first surf lesson.
In hindsight, this series of small risks was preparing and empowering me for the larger risks that I would later take. Had I chosen to play it safe and stayed on shore where I am most comfortable, rather than pushing myself to try something that scared me, perhaps I would have been more hesitant about the career decisions that I chose to make within the following three years.
Something shifted in me after this vacation. Suddenly I no longer felt that I had to continue going down a linear progression in my career. The following year, I had an opportunity to create a brand new role for myself that was more aligned with my interests. Two years later, I walked away from the security of my corporate career altogether to write my book and start my own business. Little shifts, small waves, leading to bigger ones. And I can truly say it has continued to be a fun and exciting adventure.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a Reiki Master Teacher in service to those who need to reconnect with their inner guidance so that they can live the highest vision that they choose for themselves. Prior to this, I spent thirty years in the healthcare industry in various roles of increasing responsibility, which kept me challenged and interested to some degree. Yet there was a part of me that always felt like I missed a turn in the road several miles back and I wasn’t sure how to get back on my true path.
I would alternate between following the next logical progression in my job, and attempting to redirect my career into something I felt passionate about. I wavered between wanting to focus on writing, and wanting to pursue a career in research psychology. All this waffling back and forth only kept me from clearly seeing my path ahead. It wasn’t long before I felt that I was drifting farther and farther away from what I was meant to do with my life.
When I finally resolved to pull myself out of being on auto-pilot, things started to slowly shift in my life, and I began paying closer attention to the many signs that Spirit was placing in my field. Then by some divinely orchestrated plan, I connected with my life coach in early 2019. She helped me realize that it was possible to bring my various interests together and weave them into my own unique signature.
I started my company, Vade Mecum, LLC in December 2019 primarily to create the foundation for a writing and coaching career. I had already begun working on my book, Vade Mecum: An Always-Present Guide to Your Divine Path (published in March 2021). It was a way for me to share a series of mysterious events in my life that revolved around that Latin phrase, Vade Mecum, along with other stories about remarkable synchronicities in my life.
However, as I was closing the chapter on my long career in healthcare compliance at the end of 2019, I was introduced to Reiki, which unlocked the doors to an even better path than I could have imagined. Reiki opened up my connection to my guides, allowing me to see them, after many years of frustrating attempts at receiving confirmation in my meditations. My first experience with Reiki provided the spiritual encouragement and support that I needed as I embarked on a brand new career.
Two months later, a second treatment helped me stay grounded in my power as I dealt with a potential cancer diagnosis and related surgery at the start of the pandemic lockdown. After these two profound experiences, I knew I wanted to learn more about this incredible healing modality.
As it turns out, my Reiki healer was about to launch her first cohort of Reiki Level 1 students, which I joined. I later completed training in Level 2 and Reiki Master Teacher. My Reiki journey has been a bridge to my ever deepening alignment with my soul purpose that I had been chasing since childhood. It has provided a stable foundation for the other modalities that I have since added to my practice.
Today, I lean into my Reiki training as well as my certifications in other forms of energy healing, sound healing, and psychic development whenever I hold space for others. I have a healing studio in Oakland, CA, where I hold my in-person sessions. I also provide online treatment sessions, intuitive readings, and activations over Zoom, as energy healing is not bound by space nor time. Additionally, I create and teach my own signature courses in Reiki, Dragon Energy, and other modalities that I am currently developing. I hosted my first retreat, a Dragon Forest Retreat, in April 2023. It was an incredible experience and I look forward to hosting more retreats in the future. At the moment, I’m also preparing to launch a new program for those who want to work closely with me and my various modalities in an extended format.
As someone who was in search of meaning for most of the first half of my life and later successfully realigning to my purpose, I know that the human journey can be lonely. And yet it doesn’t have to be. My goal is to help others realize their own highest vision through recognizing that they already carry the guidance that they need deep within them. My mission is to empower others to bring this to the surface so that they can harness this and live with more ease and flow.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
As an INTJ personality type (Myers-Briggs), I’ve always had a very analytical mind that favors logical reasoning over emotions. INTJs spend a lot of time in their minds and tend to be uncomfortable with feelings and emotional situations. I had an innate trust in knowledge and facts over feelings. I avoided outward emotional expressions for most of my life (refusing to even cry at a sad movie…in a dark theater…where no one would be paying attention to how I was reacting). Come to think of it, I still avoid being seen crying at a movie, whether at home or in public. Had I not been encouraged to continue writing poetry as a teenager, I likely wouldn’t have had a healthy outlet for all the emotions I kept bottled up inside.
However, once I stepped into my healership and began to harness my intuition, I had to unlearn this preference and learn to trust (gasp!) feelings. As I explored other intuitive abilities, especially channeling, I began to realize and accept that I needed to turn inward to find that resonance in my heart space, which is not something you can always logically analyze. This has been a key shift for me, but I’ve since learned to discern how and when this approach can best serve me. In particular (as others in my field will confirm), it is becoming harder to verbalize in human language some of the information that we receive from our guides. But how that information affects us emotionally, in our hearts, is something we can interpret and trust. I guess feelings aren’t all that annoying, after all.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
In my field, community is key. The spiritual journey in itself can often be confusing and lonely. Without the support of others on similar paths, being immersed in this world — and especially running a business of service to others — can easily become overwhelming.
I’ve witnessed other healers who receive the proper training but still feel isolated because they lack the community support. Some even return to their old life and/or jobs, which is not necessarily a bad decision in itself. But for those who choose to commit to this work because it is most aligned with their soul mission, then being around others who are similarly inclined often contributes greatly to one’s success. It opens up opportunities to learn from and collaborate with other experts in the field, and to expand one’s community. And none of it has to be a competition. The world needs more healers and if you focus on self-development, you can create a fulfilling career that honors your own unique experiences while serving others who are guided to you precisely because of your energetic signature.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alwayspresentguidance.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwayspresentguidance/ and https://www.instagram.com/carlamacapinlac_author/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VadeMecumLLC
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-macapinlac/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/VadeMecumLLC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ZIcEPLmbDK7XHA_vOGmTw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/vade-mecum-oakland-3
- Other: https://a.co/d/fY22XjZ
Image Credits
Mattie O’Neill Photography Jasmin Guinn