Day 103: Rena Reese

January 11, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Featured, Inspiration

“… there’s something in nature that reveals sort of the divine connection that we have, not just to each other, but to the planet and the beauty and the cooperation and the synergy of it all.  …  When you look at the divine order of nature or you even just watch a worm try and make its way off the sidewalk to the moist soil … nature is so profoundly important in inspiration.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Rena, for agreeing to be part of the Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Rena Reese: I would happily introduce myself.  I am Rena Reese and, on a personal level, I’m married to my husband, Kevin.  We have three teenagers, so we have a pretty lively home.  And on a professional level, I’m the founder of Soul Salon International, which is a company dedicated to the spiritual and the physical revival of people that are interested in finding greater meaning in life and realizing truly that spiritual fitness is as important, if not more important, than physical fitness.

So I do that, that transference of inspiration, I hope, through my books — the primary one, The Soul Salon, and other titles are The Little Book of Pink and Streaking for the Soul.  So I just look for any way to get out there and connect with people.

Toni: Well, thank you!  If we go to the very first question, which is thinking about inspiration, Rena, who do you inspire and how do you think you do that?

Rena: Well, Toni, I think this question is one that probably the ego likes to answer, so my ego would say  that those who read my books or my articles or my blogs are inspired by me, and maybe someone who would listen to me speak in a public setting or go to one of my classes or workshops.  But I feel as though my spirit needs to answer that question, and I would say that I inspire anyone who potentially could inspire me right back.

What I mean by that, really, is that anybody we come in contact with — regardless of their age or experience — has that potential to inspire us.  And therefore, because of the reciprocity, the nature of things is that they can do the very same for us.

So the person who emerges from adversity, who comes out stronger, more awake, more alive, they inspire me.  The child who begins to believe that they really are a divine creation and they have unlimited potential, they inspire me.  Strangers inspire me.  You can have a brief conversation with someone that leaves you really connected or awake in some ways that you were not before; you connect with them.

So, we really can truly never know the degree that our connections are going to impact somebody.  There’s like this reverence that sort of comes over that knowing, that knowledge.  When you connect with somebody, whether you’re in line with them and you have that brief connection, or it’s a lifetime connection.  The possibility is always there and that, to me, is so awe-inspiring that each of us holds that kind of power to positively impact another person’s life in any given moment.

Toni: The connections that you make, Rena, the people that are connected to you that you may inspire, how do you think that happens?  Is it noticeable?  Do you receive that kind of feedback?  What happens  from your perspective of connecting with others and transferring to them?

Rena: Well, as far as how does that feed my spirit?

Toni: No, how does it feed theirs?

Rena: Well, I think the fact that we are having a dialogue — that we’re able to communicate with each other — there’s a verbal component.  And then there’s the nonverbal component, and sometimes you don’t get the immediate feedback right away but there are … when I have that belief that anything is possible for somebody and there is that love, that connection, just because you are a human being, I feel aligned with you.

I notice the presence of me in you where there is no separation, that when you believe that somebody is the acorn – I love that analogy of the acorn – that they are unlimited potential, and you breathe that life into them and that faith into them that something is possible, the connections are wildly meaningful and transformative.

That could take place in a coaching relationship where you get the direct feedback; you get that week to week or sometimes several times in a week, that connection, where someone is letting you know and you see the little strides that they are making, and they are meaningful strides.

Toni: So what I’m hearing you say is that as far as the connections and what you do with others — whether it’s your work or your personal life — is that also to breathe, help them to breathe that life into them and their limitless possibilities.

How do you think that talking to someone that way or being with someone that way, how does that help them to explore their potential?  What does it do for them?

Rena: Well, again with the acorn, Toni.  You know, the acorn has everything it needs to burst out of its teeny little hull and to grow and become that mighty oak.  Sometimes, we need some little nudging, some support.  In my view, that is sort of like sunlight and soil, and that’s what I hope I am to people is that sometimes I can bring some sunlight and some soil to them.

And how?  Well, breathing life into the spirit of a person is first done by listening and really hearing what people are saying, and sometimes what they’re not saying, and then asking the right questions to get to their personal truth, because we’re so masked.  Our personal truth is so masked by our shoulds and our rules and society and cultures.  What really is true for us may not be what we’re actually living.  And having somebody kind of dive into your life and help you push past the fear and get to your ultimate truth is really the key to a very happy, very vibrant, and a very creative life, which is a real happy life.

Toni: When you talk about what inspires you, you’ve mentioned people with adversity and challenges that have gotten through that.  What else do you need, Rena, to be inspired?  When you are inspired, what is it that you’ve been in front of or have seen, felt?  What do you need to be inspired?

Rena: Inspiration comes from so many sources and it’s so personal, much like the definition of happiness.  What is it that makes somebody really feel joyful?   Well, inspiration is like a burst of creativity.  It is … I think it’s manipulated by the divine.  I think it’s divinely choreographed, and it’s not something you can force, but it’s something that can be encouraged.  And for me, inspiration comes in many, many different packages.

I would say silence.  Silence is different than meditation for me.  It is sort of a pregnant pause from life, that when you take that purposeful break and create that separation from whatever it is that’s usually  making your world spin and slow down and enjoy that planned silence.

It really is a pregnant pause.  And from that moment, it seems like the divine guidance is available to you, epiphanies are filtered to you, and reflection is the place where I think some of the most amazing ideas are born and ah-ha moments come from.

So, in addition to silence, I would say books.  I am an absolutely voracious reader, and I do my very best to read every book of every author who is a guest on my radio program.  I love nonfiction titles, and I am someone who reads with a highlighter and a journal, because there’s a sentence here and there and everywhere — and sometimes an entire page — that you can feel just running through you that you know is the truth and you want to make a note of it.  This also comes from the great spiritual texts, many of the ancient spiritual texts, that they really hold timeless truths.  Those inspire me.

Children inspire me because their energy, their love of learning, and really their desire to have fun is kind of like a renewing way to bring that to my own compass, when you see them doing it.

Probably the most important of all of these is nature.  I am profoundly inspired by nature, and I think more than, gosh, more than any of the other things that I mentioned.  It is so … there’s something in nature that reveals sort of the divine connection that we have, not just to each other, but to the planet and the beauty and the cooperation and the synergy of it all.  Everything from bees and flowers and tides and the moon.  When you look at the divine order of nature or you even just watch a worm try and make its way off the sidewalk to the moist soil … nature is so profoundly important in inspiration.

Toni: That’s an awesome way to put that, and I really … you can hear the passion about how inspirational nature is to you, and I also really like the way that you spoke about planned silence as a nugget of information.  That was a wonderful way to describe it.  I hadn’t thought about that before, and that was a really nice way to say that.

When you look at these things, Rena, that inspire you, that planned silence, the nature, children, how does that help you to explore your own potential?

Rena: Well, books, for example; any time you read something or you gain some sort of new information or new insights, that opens your world, and it does awaken your potential and it does for me too, because anyone who’s reading is constantly planting new seeds.

You are being woken up to new personal truths to make some new desires, or you’re starting to realize where your gifts are, your divine gifts, those abilities that I think are infused into each of us when we come here that we need to share, that we have an obligation to put out there and use in service of the people that we share our lives with.

And also through our quest for knowledge, we kind of birth new goals, something new to strive for.  The books are really … it’s a huge, important part of becoming bigger, expanding your potential.  Because each one of those books that you might have on your library shelf was possibly birthed out of that author’s reading other text, so it’s a domino.

I find that having goals is something that I absolutely need in order to push myself in a positive way.  Not in a way where I don’t want to be pushed, because I don’t necessarily do that, but having something measurable, written, planned, and that becomes my compass.  Because then I can fill my days with things that support my goals.  I can say am I investing my energy in a way that’s really going to have a payoff for what it is that I want to achieve, so it’s sort of like that divine compass that keeps me on track.

What I’ve come to realize in the last year … I read a book called Courage by Sandra Ford Walston and she’s just a delightful woman.  And she woke me up to a new definition of courage, and it was one that I not only applied to my daily life, but I also try and breed that concept of courage into my children’s lives and my client’s lives too.  And I think in order … all of us, each of us, in order to explore our own potential, we have to have that element of courage.

We absolutely have to start pushing a little bit more through fear and come out on the other side, which is like when the plane bursts through the clouds on the other side and you say “Oh my gosh, it was a gray day when I left the airport, but the sun’s out and the sun’s here”, and I want to strive for that sunlight, always.

Toni: What a great way to talk about courage and your learning through other people’s writings, and I know that people are going to learn from your writings, and we will post how to get a hold of you and to see some of your work at the end of the interview.

Rena, I really appreciate how honest you were and the information that you’ve  provided to me and the readers of the Get Inspired! Project today, and for that, we thank you so very much for taking part in this Project.

Rena: What an absolute pleasure.  I’ve enjoyed so many of the interviews and where you’re posting these on the Project site.  It’s like a little hit of espresso for the soul, it really is – to get in there, get an incredible story.  It might be someone very different from my personal experience, but boy I can learn from each one of them, so thank you for letting me be part of such a dynamite little Project!

Toni: Thank you very, very much for that.  I love that saying, espresso for the soul.  Thank you again, Rena, and I hope that we speak again soon.  Take care of yourself.

Rena: You do the same.

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For more information about Rena Reese:  www.soulsaloninternational.com, thesoulsalon.blogspot.com, Rena’s Radio Show, Media Page

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