Hey there - I’m Todd!
The work I do, which I am called to do, is what I call soul stirring.
How It Started
Soul Stirring was born from my own self realization that I was playing so much smaller in life than I knew myself capable. I wanted to speak up, wanted my voice to be heard, wanted to affect positive change in the lives of others. I wanted to bring my creative and compassionate energy to life… and I didn’t.
Certainly, I expressed all kinds of desire and wanting. I knew I had the potential and capacity for more, for bringing more of myself to the world as a powerful force for positive change… and I didn’t. Not like I knew I could, certainly not like I imagined.
Since I was 8 years old I KNEW I wanted to be an amazing catalyst of personal development and transformation. I may not have been able to express this so clearly at just 8, but I knew. Now, 50 years later, what was meant to be is becoming. Soul Stirring is being born, birthed as an expression of my soul’s calling.
Let’s stir our souls - together.
A little fearful, yes. A little uncertain, yes. Absolutely determined, also a yes. Committed and compelled to bring my calling to life, a huge, bold, big ass YES!
Looking back it’s clear I failed to act in ways I knew myself capable. I let the resistance win. I allowed the gap between where I knew myself to be comfortable, and the very edge of what was possible, to widen. The mighty river of doubt kept me playing so much smaller, sinking into the riverbanks, the quicksand of complacency.
That was then, this is now. Soul Stirring has and continues to be a journey I travel, which I now invite you to travel along with me. It’s time to bring my Spark, our collective Sparks, of Divinity to life.
And it seems, now more than ever, humanity needs the very best in each of us, the very best we each have to bring to the world!
Humanity needs our Divine Lights to shine as brightly as we are meant to shine! Because… Light and Love are the most powerful antidotes to fear and hatred. We must not delay. We must bring our Souls to bear in our lives, in our relationships, in our fullest self expression.
Simultaneously we must invite and welcome others to bring their souls to bare. Soul Stirring is an invitation for our Souls to dance together like the Light of two candles immersed with one another, so we can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins. We are all in this dance of life together.
So if you’re ready to pull back the blankets of personal disbelief, lies of insignificance, and excuses of circumstance in service to a greater calling, your soulful calling, then consider joining me on this journey. Let’s stir our souls - together.
There are multitudes of superficial yeses we may sprinkle into our lives, to placate our existence, to provide short term satisfaction… Then there are the moments we say YES which alter the course of our life’s trajectory. A “yes” so deep and meaningful, and soulful. The kind of yes which honors and answers the divine calling we feel within. A “yes” we are so compelled to declare for ourselves, even when we know we’re putting another part of our lives on notice: things will be different from this point forward. A yes which places the risk, reward, and faith of moving forward ahead of the seeming comfort, security, and familiarity of the status quo.
It was the Fall of 2009 and I’m saying yes to participating in a training program to become a professional, certified life coach. Yes! I commit to a schedule, to a financial obligation, to a rigor of work I’m both nervous and excited to begin! I hear the eggshells begin to crumble, breaking up, giving way to an awakening. Once delicate steps, tiptoes now become much more bold steps forward. A new beginning lay in the weeks and months and years ahead. I never imagined how sweet such a sound of crumbling eggshells would feel.
Playing Just A Little Bit Bigger
I heard the egg shells crumble, giving way to walking a path of freedom, of choice, of soulful integrity. I was so tired of tiptoeing on them, exhausted by the delicate steps I took, measured by what others might think or want, not for what I felt or truly wanted for myself.
My marriage was loosely knit together, the ever changing winds of life blew through with a chilling, rather somber and certainly a lonely feeling of existence.
My career prospects… sucked. In and out of jobs over the past 8 years had taken their toll on my professional confidence and marketability.
It was time to do something different. Time to lean in and listen to the whispers of the universe I had been ignoring for, well, most of a lifetime.
It was time to say yes, to me.
The Magical Middle
Saying yes to becoming a coach, to honoring the divine spark within was, unbeknown to me at the time, also the beginning of the end to my marriage… it was the pull of thread which would inevitably unravel the loosely knit fabric of our relationship.
While my decision to become a coach created turbulence and tremors at home, there was an even more disturbing energy at play. I found myself struggling to find my footing in a new profession. I struggled to find my niche, my play, my angle… an approach or quality or perspective which would separate me from the masses. This struggle created angst, unrest.
I wanted my coaching to be as unique as the Saab 900 Convertible I drove, to have the same naturally aspirated performance and drive. I wanted my coaching to answer my calling, nourish my soul, and help others do the same. I wanted to create a signature work uniquely my own. Something which would more than just invite my best self to the front and center stage of my life, but which would demand it. This work would be an inside- out expression of me, of my heart and soul, my beliefs, values, and truths. This work would harness my greatest strengths and deliver them through my greatest joys and pleasures.
I didn’t want my coaching to be another ‘me too’ in a crowded sea of mediocrity, a very crowded sea of sameness. I didn’t want my coaching to be lost in the clouded waters of insignificance. More than that, I didn’t want to be lost in the clouded waters of insignificance… any longer.
Have you ever felt your contribution to the world, personally and professionally, didn’t matter so much? That what you brought to bear in the world was of little consequence? Like, or as if, your absence wouldn’t register on the universal stream of humanity’s consciousness? In order to have my coaching be the kind of soulful reflection, soulful emanation of my being which I sought, which I felt, which I knew existed, there was much more work to do… on me. Little did I know another significant yes was bubbling up from this frustrating, suffocating, cocoon I had wrapped myself within.
Rather serendipitously the universe connects me with Kim Ades, founder of Frame of Mind Coaching, a wonderful coaching model grounded in daily journaling. Kim realized what most coaches needed wasn’t more coach training, or more letters after their name of accomplished professional association certifications which seemed to be the not so silent validation process the profession encouraged. What they needed was a foundation of truth, beliefs, perspectives, and a universal POV (point of view) that would make their coaching, their work of choice, the work of answering their calling an extension of themselves. Ok! Let there be light! Another huge ass YES! Another commitment of time, energy, resources, and finances. YES! Giddy up! Let’s go!
Saying yes to the Phenomenal Coach program Kim had constructed was one the the best decisions I’ve made for myself. Navigating a 10-week program grounded in deep, intensive daily journaling shared with a small, very intimate group of coaches, was, shall we say, revealing, illuminating. Kim asked us to dance with fear, shame, and regret. She asked us to dance with stories we told ourselves, interpretations of events which warped the way we related to ourselves… kind of like looking into one of those carnival mirrors which make your body look really compressed or crazily stretched beyond what you know is real
In order to see through the distortion we had to deconstruct the lies we tell ourselves. Kim also had us dance with joy, love, and courage. To look at what brought us alive, what gave oxygen to the fire of our soul. Kim choreographed incredible dances for us to lead and to follow, to the rhythm of our own making… great dances.
What did I leave with? What did I gain? What could I bring with me to alter the course of my life’s trajectory? I left with my very own, uniquely crafted, Todd Davisson’s personal point-of-view…and it has made all the difference.
The Epic Ending
Completing the Phenomenal Coach program, well, it really hasn’t ended. I’m no longer working with Kim or the group of phenomenal human beings who I shared that incredible 10 week journey with. But every day, every single day, I continue to be influenced by a POV (point of view); my own, self created, self actualized point of view… I play smaller in life than I know myself capable. Which is also to say, there is a bigger ME to bring to life in the world, a bigger ME I am meant to be and become.
Let me be clear, this POV is grounded in the rich soil of possibility and potential, abundance, caring and compassion, respect, love, and unapologetic creative self expression. At the core of this point of view is the belief, the knowing, I am more than words can define, more than can be contained by the boundaries of my skin and the physical presence of my body. I am blessed with a Spark of divinity within. A Spark of the divine, within me, and connected to… all that is. Connected to each and everyone of you, each and every living creature and thing, every element of matter. I have an incredible, unimaginable capacity to show up in the world, to be seen, to be heard, to be present. All that is necessary is a willingness to unwrap, to open up, to share the divine Spark, the miraculous Gift, the Light of divinity, from within.
How incredible it is to be given another day, each and every day… each and every moment… to open up this Gift, share the Spark, shine the Light. And so I am, and so I play, just a little bit bigger today. Care to join me?
“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”
— Mother Teresa