Zach freakin Lewis.
Just can’t say enough about this experience with him (a raw photo shoot for an upcoming Blue Skies Magazine spread and interview). Definitely pushing the edge of my comfort zone in this experience and sharing.. but I stand for THAT.. I believe in deeply appreciating the beauty in all of us as real people, complex and complicated, with so many facets beyond what we are normally defined as.. This is something I regularly and passionately explore and source major joy in helping others open up to, that I really wanted to challenge myself to do it FOR myself too.
It’s not comfortable.
But I want to live as an example of actually being IN ACTION beyond my edges both to have that experience for myself and most definitely with the hope that in so doing, that example inspires others to expand and experience life and themselves beyond their current boundaries and identities.. to access views of themselves as special, sexy, capable, and courageous.
The things that spark us.. that fill us with that legit aliveness.. sounds so freakin cliche, but for real, where you feel fear.. look at that as an opportunity to grow, to have an experience that inevitably will bring transformative value because that’s what doing what we think we can’t actually gives us.
You are capable of so much more than you currently think.
If you know anything, know this.
Below is my latest BSM column with, honestly.. the beautiful backstory.
I hope you enjoy.
Thank you always for being here and being you.
XO
Blue Skies Magazine, June 2016
Life Coaching Column #71
Issue #77
“Miracle Upgrade”
By Melanie Curtis
After a year living in the trees of Vermont, hiding from the world I admit as much as I could manage, I am reemerging. Right this minute, I am at 35,000 feet, typing in my first class seat on my flight to Dallas. Mind you, this first class seat is a straight-up miracle upgrade given my cool-guy status with Delta waned down to somewhat-cool-guy while I was a Green Mountain recluse. I thought no way in hell would I ever get an upgrade again, and then boom, early boarding and free coffee like a f*cking beacon this early AM. I’m considering this a good omen for the trip.
So this trip is for an epic opportunity I couldn’t be more fired up to have been offered. I am getting to do a photo shoot and interview with true artist, Zach Lewis. To be completely straight with you all, Zach asked me to do this years ago, when he first started these truly unparalleled, stunning collections. For years I have had an open invitation to come to Dallas for him to make me look like a freakin’ model and be given that much more of a forum to share goodness in this outstanding magazine and with our community at large.
Um… Years??
What have I been waiting for? Why wouldn’t I have done this immediately upon initial invitation? As the skydiving and public professional I am, why on earth wouldn’t I have taken this opportunity sooner?
The simple answer… I wasn’t ready.
A few years ago, even with loads of positive intention and personal growth behind me, I still had massive blind spots. In short, I was coming upon a real reckoning. In life and in skydiving. I was burning out on the intense travel boogie-organizing lifestyle, and my personal life was creeping up on a mega mushroom cloud.
I could feel it, but I couldn’t see it. I didn’t know what to do. And that’s normal. And totally ok. Our feelings point us at areas to address. If we don’t address them, get ready for your own reckoning. Blind spots are powerful and will inevitably surface into illumination by the results we get in our external life. Sounds cliché as all get-out, but the bigger the breakdown, the bigger the breakthrough available… the bigger the blind spot to be illuminated.
Do that work and I promise you will reemerge a wildly better version of yourself than before said breakdown.
And you were f*cking awesome before.
