How does a spiritual teacher cope when their life turns upside down?
How does a spiritual teacher cope when their life turns upside down, as it does even for the most powerful teachers out there, at least once in a while.
I’ve just read a book which answers this question.
It’s called Waking Up In Paris and it’s written by revered spiritual teacher and healer, and New York Times best-selling and, of course, Hay House author, Sonia Choquette, about the time her marriage imploded and she went to live in Paris. True story.
The age of teachers
If you’re on the spiritual path, then you will have more than likely come across a teacher or three along the way. It seems as though the New Age is all about learning, and so popping up left right and centre you get people with wisdom to impart, and people flocking to hear the message. Oprah was probably one of the first of this genre of turned on, tapped in women. Deepak is one of the best-known men. Sonia Choquette now also has a seat at the top table.
I had the pleasure to meet her recently in Paris, where she lives. She’s one of those divine beings of light with a soul that warms up a room.
Overcoming Darkness in the City of Light
Sonia is in Paris because her 32-year marriage imploded not all that long ago, and moving to the City of Light seemed like a really good idea. “A vibe changer,” as you might call it.
As writers do, Sonia has ended up writing about her stay in Paris (so far it’s lasted a couple of years). Because she is a “woke” spiritual teacher, and because Paris has changed her, the title for the book is the clever double-entendre “Waking Up In Paris”. Because she literally found herself waking up there, and she also found herself, waking up there. Get it?
The subtitle is: Overcoming Darkness in the City of Light. Again, perfectly apt on more than one level.
What fascinates me about this book is that it’s a rare chance to see behind the curtain into the life of a successful, highly-respected New York Times best-selling author of spiritual books, just when her life has imploded. How does she cope?
After all, spiritual teachers have crisis too. After all, they are (presumably, though you never know!) all fellow humans with their own karma and their own lessons to learn. However most don’t write about their crises until they are way in the past. This book is different. Sonia is writing from the eye of the storm of her unwanted divorce.
In the gives-you-goose-bumps promotional video on her site for the book which Sonia shot all over Paris in one day with a film wiz kid on his iPhone, Sonia explains her divorce left her without a home and without financial stability.
She felt like she was on the track to a nervous breakdown.
How to be a spiritual teacher under this pressure?
Then Sonia’s daughter made a suggestion… what about if we move to Paris? I mean, why not? (For the record, I also moved there after a relationship broke up. Where better to heal than at what some says is the earth’s heart chakra, right?)
Suddenly Paris seemed like a good idea to Sonia and so, and 12 weeks later, she arrived with her daughter. A few years later, she is still there.
I wanted to tell you about the book because it’s a masterclass in how a spiritual teacher as powerful as Sonia Choquette navigates life when everything seems to be going wrong.
Q: What do you do when your life goes belly up and you’re meant to be someone who shows people about how to live a spiritual life?
A: You do what your soul needs to start the healing process!
And that’s what this book is about. How to heal. You don’t have to be in Paris to heal in the same way or to learn the lessons inherent in the story, though of course it won’t hurt!
This is really a biography more than a self-help book. But if you read between the lines of her real life travails, you will learn some amazing lessons from Sonia’s Paris sojourn, which at the time of writing is still on-going. It really is a How To Keep Your Spiritual Head On When Life Is Falling Apart.
Tough times show us who we really are and who we want to be. Sonia’s book is also about how to be a good, Divinely-connected person in the face of what feels like a crumbling life. It’s not hit-you-over the head advice, which makes a refreshing change.
In the book Sonia comes across as sweetly and funny as she does in real life. Make no mistake, though, behind the smile beats the heart of a profound healer and teacher with the power to inspire you and even change your life, if you read and get what she has to say.
It’s also beautifully and jauntily written. No surprise from a spiritual self-help writer who managed to become a New York Times best-selling author.
So if you think all that sounds as amazing as it actually is, here is a link to it. I am delighted to highly recommend it to you!
As a massive bonus, if you order Sonia’s book now you will also get access to her Waking Up to Creating an Authentic Life online course. Do it!
