Inner Work – Page 2 – Kayla MacArthur

March 8, 2020

Bali Silent Retreat

Mist hangs above the jungle in delicate swathes of silver. Beyond my narrow, single bed and the mesh canopy that fans around it, darkness is beginning to fill the cracks between the trees. The jungle and its night time noises grow louder. And I—I grow lonelier. I’ve spent two days with a group of people I do not know, and can not. We share space, hovering like ghosts at meal times, sitting in circle for meditation, resting soundlessly on cushions and couches that scatter the second floor lounge. We’re here, but we’re not. We’re not here for each other. We’re here for ourselves. Typically, this would be a dream for...

February 17, 2020

How Whole Are You?

Explore, Reinvent

“How whole are you?” I leaned back on the motorbike, as my sixteen year old Balinese driver pressed on with increasing speed through the winding jungle roads of Nusa Penida. When I didn’t answer, he repeated his question— “How whole are you?” “I need a moment to sit with that, Echo.” Surely, I thought, this must be a Balinese get-to-know-you question. In my own culture, it’s unusual to explore the depths of one’s wholeness at first acquaintance. But, however nonchalantly he asked, it had an impact. How whole am I? After a few moments of contemplation and gripping the back of his bike for dear life, I said, “I am...

February 9, 2020

Bali: A Lesson in Presence

Explore, Reinvent

I thought I was coming to Bali to work. It turns out, this couldn’t be more far from the truth. Here in Bali, life is different. “Ati ati” is a phrase I learned from one of my Balinese drivers. It means “slow ride” {according to his translation}. When he taught me this phrase, we were on our way to Canggu and he was referring to road speed, but I took it to mean something deeper. “Ati ati,” I repeated to myself, looking out over the vivid green of the rice fields rushing past. Slow ride. Slow ride indeed. Here in Bali, there is nowhere to get to—there is only THIS...

December 4, 2019

The Secret to Profound Transformation

Reinvent

How do I stop myself from experiencing what I want most {love & freedom}? 1.) Obsession. Whether it’s love addiction, heartbreak, or a thrilling new project, I let obsession hijack my focus and drain my well-being. As a result, I tend to experience love OR freedom, but not both. 2.) Projecting fear {based on the past} into the future. I then proceed to live from THERE instead of from HERE, in an ever-expanding partnership with what’s possible. I shrink my world as opposed to open it up. Fear, uncertainty, and what’s predictable are the crayons I color with. 3.) Getting too attached to a specific RESULT and too rigid with...

June 21, 2019

What If You Made a Mess?

Reinvent

It’s been 40 minutes since our call started.And I still don’t see an opening to support you. I know what you want to create.You’re clear on that. You know how to get there.You’re confident in the path. Most Coaches would leave it here and declare you complete.Most Coaches would say, “Great! You know what you want, you know how to get there, now go off and get it done!” I’m not like most Coaches. Instead, I reflect what’s going on within me: “It sounds like you’ve got this. We’ve been talking for 40 minutes and I still don’t see how I can support you. I’m wondering why you raised your...

June 6, 2019

The Mirror You Want {But Don’t Want} To Look In

Reinvent

We sit across from each other. You speak and I listen. I listen deeply—for what is said beneath your words. First, you tell me about your business. You tell me how frustrated you are. How people hardly ever buy from you. How no one can afford your fees. You tell me about your Clients. How they’re driving you MAD because they’re not committed to change. They say they want this thing that you can help them get, but they’re unwilling to put in the work to get it. Next, you tell me about your dreams. You paint a beautiful picture of possibility. It’s vivid and BIG. It’s all you want…...

May 24, 2019

Do You Experience Energetic Highs & Lows?

Reinvent

Do you give something your ALL, only to burn out? Feast or famine is typically something you think of when you think of money. It’s not so much something you think of when you think of energy.However, when feast or famine is the place you’re coming from, you tend to find it everywhere. It’s a cycle of extremes, where each extreme drives the other. It’s a cycle that can stretch over days, weeks, years—it doesn’t know time, it only knows high from low, up from down, everything from nothing and nothing in-between. It’s a cycle you can live in for life. And while you can create phenomenal things within its...

April 25, 2019

Let’s Talk About Selling

Create

Selling products. Selling services. Selling skills. To preface this post, I want to say: Everyone I choose to work with is a good-hearted person.And if you’re reading this, I’m willing to bet that YOU are a good-hearted person, too. What I find, time and time again—for myself, for my Clients, for us good-hearted people—is that we think we have a sales problem when in reality, we have a BELIEVING problem. All selling is, is a vehicle for transformation.All selling is, is a vehicle for service. Whatever it is you sell, there is a purpose behind it that boils down to: I made this thing to support my fellow humans to...

April 19, 2019

Do You Believe in Magic?

Create

When I was a little girl, I believed in magic. I believed in it so much, I thought I was a witch. I made potions from berries that grew wild in the woods. I cast love spells out of poems and flowers. I even made myself a silver wand and told my friends at school that they were witches too. As I grew up and my fairy tale faded, I stopped believing I was a witch, but I never stopped believing in magic. In fact, magic has only become MORE REAL over time. In 2011, I was shocked to learn that a week before graduating, I was the Valedictorian of...

December 13, 2018

The Art of Feeling: When Presence & Sovereignty Collide

Reinvent

Something I’ve been practicing recently is holding and giving space to how I feel, without acting on or withdrawing from it. I’ve been practicing slowing down to experience the fullness of what’s available to me as a human and to give myself choice in how I respond, when I choose to. For most of my life, things have been different. For most of my life, my instinct has been: How do I express this feeling or make it go away? To be human is to feel. And what I find true for me and my people is that we struggle to BE WITH how we feel. We tend to act...