We recently connected with Eve Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Eve thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

It all began with a woman beckoning me, standing slightly behind a pillar and away from the other TESOL conference participants. Smiling, I waved, excused myself from the group of teachers I’d been chatting with and went over to her. I’d met this teacher two years before in 2012 at an English teacher training in Sevastopol when it was still a part of Ukraine.

“I just wanted to thank you.” She said, the words tripping over themselves in her rush to expel them.

“For what?” There was nothing out of the ordinary that had taken place at our training aside from it being a dream group of individuals made to share loads of fun and laughter.

“You saved my life.” That was not the response I expected.

“I’m sorry?” Confused, I took a sip of tea rather than blurt out the questions flooding my mind.

“When I was trapped inside my house and there were rockets blowing everything up, I was so scared I felt lost.” The teacher came from a part of Ukraine that had been invaded by Russia in 2014. “I took out my notes from the workshop that you gave us on resilience and I followed the steps. I did them everyday until I could escape the war zone. That saved my life.” She shrugged as if what she’d shared hadn’t just rocked my world. “I just wanted to let you know.”

As ran through the lessons I learned in the conversation over the years, this interaction changed the trajectory of my career and life by teaching me to listen to my intuition.

When I designed the course content she mentioned, there wasn’t the plethora of materials we now have on resilience. However, I’d created the program because I was not only burnedout, but dealing with trauma that impacted my life in a myriad of ways: My focus was off and my inability to concentrate at times meant that I struggled to consume information. As someone working in academia this was a problem. At the time, I was aware that very few people who saw me would know my struggle. That got me thinking: “If this is the case for me, how many other teachers or students may be struggling like me?

Intuition, and a mini needs analysis, guided me to compile, use, and present the resilience tools that had a positive impact on her life. I gave my presentations and did my workshops with the hope that what I was teaching reached those who needed it. The above conversation with the teacher in 2014 confirmed that in honoring my intuition and sharing about tools that enriched my lived experience, I offer content that is helpful for others.

Now, when my intuition speaks, I listen.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Way back in college at Agnes Scott, I determined that I would live in multiple locations around the world so that I could understand what it meant to be a global citizen. I also wanted to develop a wider perspective, understand my tendencies towards bias, and choose the governing story of my life though, this last part, I didn’t understand at 18. My reflection continues to this day.

I want to be aware of conditioned thought patterns and choose how to see and approach them. I want to be present and clear in who and what I choose to be in my life and why.

In each culture – country, city, place of work, family, relationship – there are many beautiful aspects, as well as, aspects that we don’t prefer. Through exposing myself to different ways of thinking, living, being, I was able to see other potential ways for me to be that helped me grow in compassion, empathy, and discernment. For example, growing up in the U.S. I tended to want to check off things from my ever growing list of all the items I felt that I needed to complete to have a great life/career/experience. If I’m in Florence, I have to see or go to a list of all the so-called important things. Then I would get flustered or upset that something wasn’t done. Not all cultures value this thought pattern and I found that the more I explored alternative ways of thinking, the more I shifted towards enjoying the process rather than the result. This slowing down to be in the moment invites continual joy and celebration.

My 20-year journey abroad led me to a deeper understanding of myself and others. It also lead me through experiences that were unexpected such as civil unrest, active war zones, and natural disasters. Moving nearly every year for 17 years also took a toll. When I realized that I’d reached an overload of change and suffered from fear, anxiety, stress, chronic fatigue, loss of belonging, low self-esteem, and panic attacks – I sought help.

After years of working with movement, meditation, sound, Reiki, and my therapist, I restored balance and joy to my life. Through this process of activating my inner healing and learning the language of my emotions and body, I have experienced healing. And, the process continues.

Every day I choose words, activities, and lifestyle that brings me health and joy. Sometimes this is a struggle because my previous habitual behaviors or thoughts weren’t always in my own best interest. I keep working on, and often struggle, with my continued evolution as the awareness and change I’m making are not sudden, but gradual shifts over time through love and intention.

I am continually engaged in the work. My daily process is looking at myself through the lens of loving kindness and seeing where there is room for change, room for deeper integration of love. What I mean here is, in part, the act of loving the self. When I was growing up I created a story about myself being unlovable that was not true. Thoughts and behaviors stemmed from this story. Some I have resolved and some I have not. This is why I do the work daily. I am committed to loving myself because I believe that through these acts of self love, I am also continuing to learn how to love others. When you can truly love others, you can be present with them from a place of loving kindness. This is who I try to be. I fail a lot. That’s okay. I go inside and observe my tendencies and then, do better.

Subconscious habitual thoughts or behaviors at times rise to my awareness and may appear too monumentous to change. In those cases, I look at how to affect change in bits and pieces until I am closer to who I would prefer to be. What I ask my clients to do, I do.

This place inside from where I observe myself is my inner sanctum. It is a place that I didn’t know existed for many years. I happened upon it through meditation and realized that it is what I’d been reading about in research on yoga and meditation. Through observation, I learned the language of my emotions, of my body, and I watched and continue to observe my mind. The more I did this, the more my inner sanctum, this loving place inside me where I connect with my intuition and rejuvenate, developed. It connects me with my Self. It is from this place that I draw strength and love when I am going through a difficult time.

My workshops, events, coaching, and classes are lovingly created with the purpose of creating a space where others can connect with themselves. As a facilitator, I assisting my clients as they explore their emotional and physical landscapes and connect to their heart and body. I offer the tools I used, Reiki, sound, yoga, meditation, and coaching, and my personal experience in finding joy as a starting point in my client’s exploration. From there, I stand by them and with them as they explore and connect with themselves.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Collaboration is one of the most meaningful ways to grow and succeed. Working with or supporting others, elevates us both and offers an opportunity for continual inspiration. As I see how my co-creators think about and approach work, it encourages me to widen my perspective and push further than I thought possible. Most of my collaborations have been joyful co-creations. When that energy is present the content produced is remarkable and, more importantly, we thrive, heal, and elevate each other through our work together. (The healing part is one of the perks to working with complementary medicine practices.)

To ensure that I’m working with people from a fully co-creative space, I choose the right people. When I first started, I noticed that when I was not feeling joy, there was a reason. In my experience, there are many people who will masquerade as co-creators but what they are really looking for is someone who will do all the work. Here are some areas that I look for when interviewing someone about a potential project: listening, co-creating, shifting, and willingness to work.

Listening is a skill. It requires you to be fully present with the other person and responding to what they are communicating. This means actively confirming understanding of what the other person said through summarizing and questioning. I have learned over the course of my career not to work with people who do not have this skill. An example of what not listening looks like is when someone asks me a question and, rather than letting me answer, responds to a concept or word that I used as a jumping off point for their own monologue. If this occurs in short conversation it will occur throughout the time you work with them. Working as a co-creator means that you both have to have a voice. When someone attempts to silence me, even when unconsciously done and without malicious intent, I will not to partner with them.

The second aspect I look for is whether or not the other person sees this as a true collaboration. Will we both be giving equally? I’ve come across a lot of wonderful people with amazing ideas. As I look a little more closely at their proposed partnership, I noticed that they wanted me to do all the work. In partnerships that work, we are co-creating. It will take a lot longer and there is connection, joy, and creativity that become the fire behind this process. We are building content through engagement and discussion. Writing together from start to finish.

During the course of the work, you’ll pivot as your understanding for what you are creating evolves. For example, one of my sound partners, Tiffany, and I started to working together on teaching writing. Within a month we were like – no thanks. This is not what we want to be doing. We contemplated what brought us joy and where that could potentially overlap with helping other people.

Turns out what got us really excited was helping creatives overcome blocks to their work. Because sound helps us access our subconscious mind to find answers, we began using it to help creatives unblock by tuning out and turning off their inner critic. Results have included actors connecting with characters and writer’s solving plot points. While this shift that we went through meant that we had to start over, we saw immediate results and were more aligned.

Running a business is about shifting. I am aware that I am always shifting because I am changing, the market is changing, and the world is changing. Keeping this in mind, I use joy as my thermometer. Does this shift feel right? Am I in integrity with my core values and that of my business? When this is clear, it is easy to shift without feeling overwhelmed. Ultimately, I am open to the creative process teaching me what needs to come through, how, and doing the work. My work with TIffany continues. Recently we’ve learned, shifted, and kept moving towards putting together an online course. I can’t wait to see how this evolves!

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Yes! I am grateful for both my career as an English teacher abroad at the University of Macau, City University of Hong Kong, and working as a Specialist for the Office of English Language Programs run by the State Department through Georgetown, as well as, my pivot into a career working as a Reiki and sound practitioner and life coach. Phew. That was a long sentence.

Being a teacher and teacher trainer taught me to listen to both what was being said and what was not being expressed. What I mean here is that there are times when people don’t have the words to share something that is meaningful for them. Or, they might have a hesitancy because they are afraid that what they will say is “wrong”. Through being a teacher for 20 years, I have a talent for helping people find the language they would like to use to express themselves and feel fully heard. Human beings are creatures that thrive when they feel connected. It is healing to feel understood and I am so grateful to have had 20 years of practice. I bring this skill to my Reiki and Gong practice as my superpower which was honed through moving across the world from Asia to Russia to Europe.

Unexpectedly, teaching also helped me pivot to work in a completely different career. In my teaching career, I spent every semester with some new courses. If it was content I wasn’t familiar with, I would have about a week, sometimes less, to familiarize myself with say, Business English, before I had to start teaching. This helped me to learn to shift quickly and stay open to change. It also taught me to let things go and not be too much of a perfectionist. The lesson in letting go has been foundational in my success. Rather than getting caught in an upset about something not being perfect, I look at what part of the process can be shifted to create a better result next time and institute that change. Over time, these small changes begin to bring mastery.

Mastery is important. With the courses I taught every semester, I had mastery over the content and the systems I used to deliver the content, communications, and materials. This allowed me to offer deeper guidance to the students and created a positive impact for us all as evidenced in the students’ feedback. It was common every semester to have multiple students write that they loved the course the way I delivered it.

From this experience, I integrated two important lessons that have helped me within my own business:

1. Master your content. Live and breathe what you do as much as you can. Read, study, and train with experts or masters in the field. I put on my learning hat and explore everything I can about Reiki and playing the gongs. Everyone teaches things differently and there’s always something to learn – even if it’s a reminder of something you know! For example, I’ve taken Reiki Level 1 three different times with different teachers in Thailand, Hong Kong and here in Decatur, GA.

2. Create systems that support you. The more effective your system, the more effectively it will allow you to focus on the core of your work, whatever that might be. For me, effective systems allow me to concentrate my energy on my clients.

Finally, the scope of human experience I’ve lived through with my previous career has been so extraordinary during my 18 years abroad there were times when I felt like I was living a movie. In every country that I have lived and worked, I met beautiful and kind people. People who went out of their way to help me or connect so that I would have a community where I felt a sense of belonging.

When I understood that it was time to settle in the United States, I knew that creating a safe, open, supportive community was my focus. My mission is to provide a space where people can explore tools to care for themselves and try things out, hopefully, integrating what resonates for them in a way that is practical and sustainable.

Based on some of the communities I was a part of abroad, it was important to me to provide my students with a way to learn and grow through conversation, offerings, and experiences. To this aim, I provide our growing community a gathering space free of charge twice a month to explore a range of topics related to healing arts. I also started offerring the Atlanta community a free mini-retreat every few months with my Community Reiki and Wellness Event. This event was created as a result of a student asking for a way to provide free Reiki service to the community as an act of service and I thought – yes! And, it could be more than free Reiki sessions. Why not also introduce Reiki and share the benefits of this and other healing modailities with the comminuty so they can try things out? I gathered people that I know in complementary wellness field and turned the event into a full wellness retreat with educational offerings, Reiki, yoga, massage, sound work, and other healing modalities as well.

All are welcome. If you’re in Atlanta during the community event stop on by and say hi! I’d love to see you there.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sanctumwithevesmyth.com
• Instagram: @eves_myth

Image Credits
Eve Smith