Experiences That Transform You

There’s nothing like a truly great course, a powerful program—an experience crafted not just to teach, but to transform.

I am a facilitator, coach, and teacher. But before I was any of those, I was, and still am, a student. And I always will be. There’s something sacred about stepping into the role of a learner—showing up, not as an expert, but as someone open to being changed.

The receptiveness of the student is as essential as any of the other elements. An open mind and heart is the beginning of transformation.

As a student, I get excited, I prepare, I arrive eager for the shifts that might unfold, both internally and externally. I go into each learning experience with a kind of hunger, ready to let the knowledge seep in, ready to let it change me.

Sometimes, it’s the teacher. Just being in someone’s presence—feeling the energy they bring—can shift something in you, even if you can’t explain why.

Other times, it’s the knowledge itself. Wisdom, insights, carefully woven together to reveal a larger truth—one that doesn’t just speak to the mind but resonates within, moving something deeper.

And then, there’s the process. The hands-on exercises, the uncomfortable reflections, the deliberate work of exploring unfamiliar terrain. This is where the real expansion happens, often in ways you don’t expect.

But the rare magic, the life-changing transformation, happens when all three come together:

A powerful, embodied teacher.
Elegantly orchestrated knowledge.
A strategic journey crafted for growth.

When that combination aligns, it touches your mind, body, and soul. This is the true magic of education.

Teachers You Can Feel, Not Just Hear

Some teachers don’t just speak, they radiate. You find yourself leaning in, drawn not only by their words but by the authenticity they exude.

You find yourself captivated—not just by what they say, but by who they are.

These are the teachers who hold a kind of magnetism. Even if they aren’t consciously trying to inspire, you feel something in their energy that makes you listen closely, absorb deeply. It’s like there’s an unspoken message beyond the words.

One of my mentors was like this. She could be talking about the most ordinary thing, but her calm presence and grounded energy left an impact beyond her words. I remember feeling, without really understanding it, that her way of being was as much the lesson as the content she was sharing.

It’s the energy they bring. Their presence. Their coherence.

The words matter, of course. But when their words align with who they truly are, when their message resonates with their essence, the impact multiplies. As a student, you feel connected to them, sometimes inexplicably. It’s like you know them on a personal level, even if you’ve only spent a few hours together.

But this kind of connection isn’t about idolizing the teacher or placing them on a pedestal. It’s about resonance. It’s about feeling their authenticity, recognizing their coherence, and letting that influence you.

A truly embodied teacher doesn’t just teach content—they hold space for you to step into your own transformation.

An embodied teacher is a channel, a space-holder, and a facilitator, who allows for your own authenticity and growth, without expecting it. They change you simply by being true to themselves.

Knowledge That Stays With You

Certain knowledge has the power to shift you. It’s not just something you remember; it’s something that shifts your perspective, lodges itself in your understanding of the world.

For instance, when I studied Natural and Holistic Nutrition, I learned a fact that rattled me: in parts of Africa where famine is a reality, huge amounts of food go to cattle being raised for export, while the local people suffer from hunger. That single truth left a deep impression on me, sparking a new awareness of the intersections between economics, ethics, and global food systems.

Or in my Master’s program in Leadership Development, I learned about “projection”—the tendency to see our own unacknowledged traits in others. As a coach, realizing how often we unknowingly project onto our clients was mind-blowing. It changed the way I approach my work, helping me understand how to better hold space for someone else’s truth without coloring it with my own experiences.

In my Embodied Leadership Training. Studying it shifted my relationship with parts of myself I’d barely been aware of. Learning how to lead from a place of alignment—where my words, my actions, and my inner state are all in coherence—changed how I show up in every area of my life.

Knowledge like this doesn’t fade. It reshapes the way you see, the way you think, the way you act.

I find what one of my favorite astrologer always says to be true, “Once you’re conscious, you can’t be indifferent.” (She actually says it in Spanish and it rhymes, “Una vez consciente, no puedes ser indiferente”)

Felt and applied knowledge becomes true wisdom. But here’s the thing: knowledge like this is rare. The world is full of information, but only a small fraction of it has the power to truly touch the mind.

The Power of an Experiential Process

Then there’s the process—the journey of exercises, reflections, challenges, and aha moments that make up a truly immersive learning experience.

Sometimes, the process feels awkward, even pointless. You might not understand why you’re being asked to do a particular exercise until it’s over. And sometimes even after a period of time passes. But that’s the brilliance of a well-designed experience; it pushes you beyond your comfort zone, often in ways you don’t realize until later.

I remember one exercise where we had to share a deeply personal story with a stranger, something we wouldn’t normally reveal. I couldn’t understand the point of it at first. But by the end, I saw how powerful it was to confront vulnerability head-on, to experience the trust that grows when you allow yourself to be seen. It changed the way I approach connection and honesty, even outside of the learning space.

Another time, in a yoga training, I learned a sequence of movements designed to release tension from the hips and lower back. I practiced it every day, not fully grasping its impact until months later, when I realized how much lighter I felt, both physically and emotionally. That small, consistent action had opened up something in me that I didn’t even know was closed.

The process asks you to trust it, even when it doesn’t make sense in the moment. This is where true transformation happens—in the small, sometimes uncomfortable steps that ask you to stretch beyond the familiar, to expand into new ways of being.

You can’t forget what you felt in your bones.

Experiential education is key because it involves the full human - it immerses them into the knowledge so they can fail, feel, and learn into it.

In one of the epic events we run at The Self Academy and Club called Be. Play. Love., often the experience itself is the knowledge.

As a facilitator, it is my job to help them debrief and makes sense of their felt experience with their mind. Sense-making and integration truly matters in this part of the process, something I often see lacking in ‘transformational’ experiences.

The Alchemy of Transformation

To truly be in service of transformation, an understanding and connection to the deeper aspects of a human being is necessary, starting with yourself. These profound shifts go beyond the rational mind.

They touch on the emotions, feelings, and soul of a person. Part of the paradigm shift we are going through asks us to include the entire human being in the conversation. In all conversations. Compartmentalization is no longer an option.

Work cannot be separated from the soul. The personal is deeply intertwined with the professional. Our purpose, strengths, and experiences, along with our complex emotional world with its joys and pains, come with us and taint everything we touch.

This is the alchemy of transformative spaces. It’s not what you learn, but who you become They allow you to unfold into the versions of you that you’re searching for and that are waiting for you.

This is what I do.

The education I am committed to, doesn’t just leave you with new information. It changes you.

It touches parts of yourself that you might not have fully known or understood. It stays with you long after the course has ended, influencing how you think, how you act, how you are.

That’s the magic of true education. It’s not just about accumulating knowledge; it’s about creating shifts that ripple out into every part of your life. It’s about becoming more conscious, more connected, more whole.

The best school however, is called life.

I will always be a student of life, open to the next experience that might transform me all over again, until the day that I die.

What experiences have transformed you?