Mind Body Spirit Festival presenter Michael James shares his story of a synchronous meeting with Teal Swan and how that led to both of them coming together to present a workshop at the London Wellbeing Festival this year.
When I first met Teal Swan back in 2014 we instantly connected. We met through my good friend (and her then-husband) Sarb Swan and I remember the moment clearly. In St James Park, London, we got talking and I found myself instantly at ease with her, saying way more than I’m used to on a first meeting. I remember commenting that she was one of the most intuitive people I’d met and we both shared a feeling of familiarity like old friends coming back together. The three of us had a great relationship together which continued until their marriage ended a year or so later. But that’s another story.
Light in the shadows
After that first meeting in the park, what followed was hours of conversation on Skype about the meaning of life and everything, including one of my favourite topics: Practical spirituality. We offered one another insights and helped each another through the challenges of everyday life, not knowing at the time how it was all one of those perfect synchronicities for building the perfect material for our workshop, Light in the Shadows, which we are presenting together at the Mind Body Spirit Festival this May. When Mel Carlyle, the Managing Director of Mind Body Spirit asked us to team up, it was an instant ‘yes’ from both of us. By this point we had already discussed co-writing a book and this organisation, which I love, seemed the perfect place to make our debut together. Years before we had met, both of us had always wanted to go to an event like the one we are going to present; one in which the speakers ‘get real’ and share their insights about how to handle those ‘murky everyday challenges of everyday living’ that everyone encounters. The relationship struggles, health worries, body image concerns and other fears. We will be sharing the ways we have mastered feeling good when things ‘out there’ are proving difficult. It won’t be another of those ‘Five steps to get everything you want’. It will be something more authentic and helpful to the human experience.