The Birth of SoulArist

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Though I am forced to call myself the founder of SoulArist, you will soon find out how I was founded BY SOULARIST. Though most people go through much to find their IKIGAI (your purpose if you will), mine came and hit me over the head.

Imagine hearing a name in your head for a couple of years. Not all out like A-Beautiful-Mind-esque. Just whispers, like echos in the wind.

"Solaris" is the name that echoed in my head for close to two years before I paid any attention to it. Being the academician I was at the time, I started researching the name with the help of my best friend, Google.

I am still laughing at myself for the things I did during this part of my life

Some Italian architecture came up and I copied a geometrically improbable sketch, decided it didn't make sense, and left it at that (circa 2008).

Soon after, I felt that it was time I started finding the meaning of life. As I embarked on my own "journey" (spiritual is just too loaded, journey is more truthful, and what a spectacular one it was), I had a vision one day. More like a visual epilepsy actually - as it captured me body, mind and soul, and wouldn't let me go until I mapped the whole thing out and detailed an entire organisational chart (including tenures mind you) and some sort of a community model that included organic farming, healthy living, a new educational system where lessons were very much based on experiential learning principles. It was a form of completely reformed ecosystem; one that did not operate on money, but tokens (circa 2009-ish).

This time I laugh because, in some ways, Steemit is somewhat similar in concept, except in the above context it was for trade-able things like fruits, vegetables, services etc.

I took one look at the big picture, completely freaked out and chucked it as far away from my line of vision as possible (into a drawer it went).

As all journeys do, there comes a point when there is a fork in the road, and one must choose. Due to some form of temporary insanity, I decided to take the jungle path, and I wouldn't even call it a path - more like a parting through the leaves really.

I left the only thing I knew up till then, academics. I had literally been in school all my life. I had a safe job, something I was quite comfortable with and literally had started getting the hang of, and was at a place where I loved my colleagues and students. Semesters were getting easier to teach and work was fun. Like I said, temporary insanity. I can't even begin to describe the panic attack I had in signing my resignation paper (February 2010).

I walked out of academics and thought I was about to start something on my own. So I went back to the drawing board and thought about the grand idea I had chucked aside and decided I needed to be more practical, so I drew just the essence of it - living our best life. Good old Google to the rescue and I found a word that sang to me - Aristi, a Greek word which meant excellence - or at least that's what Google translate said.

Living our best life, meant living of excellence, at our core, at our soul level. Soul Aristi. The echos in the wind brought the memory of an old name back. Solaris. If I dropped the "i", that is exactly what it became - SoulArist. I picked my colours, concepts etc, and of course panicked once again. This time my distraction came in the form of a job offer, for a special project in transferring an entire business process of a mobile healthcare company into a software. I had three things to learn, the entire business process from A-Z, learn to speak to software developers and learn a whole lot of people management for the organisational change that ensued! (2011 - 2013)

Another two years slipped by without any further whispers. Then the unthinkable happened. My father left home on the morning of April 12, 2013 and didn't quite come back. He had suffered a heart attack while driving. Some passers by found him and his car; hours later, they found us the family.

My world had turned upside down. All I could think of was to complete my project and then maybe blank. I couldn't really think of what to do next.

Then my greatest love, my teacher came back into my life. He had been in my life since 2008, a beacon of light through the years, but now I clung to him. The world and the truth as I knew it crumbled and gave way to an entirely different vision.

I went from one part time job to another just to pay the bills, but my heart and mind was abundantly expanded to the corners of the universe, stretching the limits of the laws of the universe. My humility, love for humanity and compassion grew deeper. The ego, broken time and time again....even to this day.

One day, it was like a dream, my only part time job was taken away. I wasn't upset. I leaned back to my joy of teaching, especially children. Except this time I drew up a children's workshop for creative writing. I myself had only recently started sharing some of my pieces for the public eye. I knew what it was like growing up feeling inadequate to express yourself, I wanted to share what I learnt with children who feel the same way.

As soon as I finished the content for the workshop, I could only think of one thing - to share it. Somehow things started falling in place. I found a venue, got all the materials together and put a few flyers out. One session was sold out. Things were well on the way, with a workshop set for December, and it was just early November 2016.

Then on 19th November 2016 another earthquake shook my world, my beloved teacher too departed his physical form. I use the term teacher loosely. It is hard to explain the special respect one holds for someone who gives you a second chance at life - to live it differently. To know love so pure and unconditional, not tethered to our connotation of relationships; one of highest compassion, forgiveness and selflessness.

This time though, I was not shattered - though unprepared, I knew I was not alone. There was also the matter of all the workshops lined up, so I could not stop. It was perfectly so I suspect, as I'm not sure how those days passed. I found myself at the company registration office one day, and just like that SoulArist was registered and finally born into the world on the 30th of November 2016.

I needed a logo. As I was driving to His special memorial prayers, the whole image of the logo was "drawn" in my mind. I did my best to do justice in the sketch I passed to the designer. She actually traced the hand drawn logo - that is the body we see today. The wings had a much better transformation than my original artwork (thankfully), and this year, the font was upgraded from an earlier handwritten font.

New Year of 2017 opened with dengue, remnants of which are still being felt - but an experience that has given me greater appreciation for life, health and yoga. The rest of 2017 passed with a mountain of learning, attending workshops and training to become a Yoga instructor. I did my best in putting my thoughts down for implementation, but it did not take off (at least not at the time I thought it would).

These so called "quiet" times it seems have not been quiet at all (even over the last month and a half). These times it seems is that calm on the surface as great shifts and changes happen deep down. Where my worldly knowledge makes me feel inadequate, lazy and not staying on course - a deeper wisdom seems to churn away shifting the bedrock of (my) reality! The most perceptible shift I tend to feel is a sense of flow and alignment, where I can't ignore it even if I tried, as it would simply knock down my front door.

2018 arrived with a thunderous bang, and everything started falling in place, especially how Yoga tied in beautifully with everything. Somehow between January - March, I worked with the least amount of sleep a human could possibly endure without collapsing. Ideas kept flowing, more than I could even grasp - there were times I wished my brain had a USB port I could connect my computer to. Content for a facebook page, media items and design for social media, content for a website, meetings, people, networks, talks. schools....the list continues. I wanted to add a component of Blog, and I found Steemit. It literally feels like I attended a crash course in MBA between 2017 and 2018, not sure I passed all the modules, but just that I got all the practical version of the classes.

It has been a roller coaster ride of epic proportions, but a true BLESSING all the way. My greatest fear however, is not that I will fail. My greatest fear is that I just might succeed. It seems completely insane and even sound like I am full of myself. Which is laughable, as by this point, I should know enough there never was an "I" in question. You see, the truth is, SoulArist has a life force of it's own. It is beautiful, it is bold, it is full of life, passion and creativity. It overwhelms, scares, shakes, excites and ignites me all at the same time.

Everyday is a battle, everyday is a lesson, everyday there is support from loved ones both physical and beyond. Everyday I learn to overcome my fears and find confidence. Everyday I have a chance to sail on the voyager SoulArist, a passenger on board the Enterprise, boldly going where I have never been before. All in the name of bringing confidence for us to find Joy in Expressing Ourselves, finding our voice, and courage in our Authenticity - living our soul excellence.

Yours in Gratitude and Appreciation,

The one proudly founded by SoulArist.