Meet Lissa Coffey

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lissa Coffey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lissa below.

Hi Lissa, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
This is such a big question! I’ve been a seeker my whole life – I remember when I was very young thinking about this. And I knew my purpose was much more than whatever I majored in at UCLA. I was always in a hurry. I finished high school early, so I spent my senior year in a special program for radio and television because I was interested in that. I wrote an original one-act musical and put on a show with all of my friends in the roles. And I loved all that, but I knew there was something more – I just didn’t know what.

I would go to psychics and seminars and palm readers and always ask that question – what’s my purpose? How do I find my purpose? And I’d always get the same answer – you have to find it for yourself.

Now that I’m older, I can look back and see how everything fell into place exactly as it was supposed to, so that I could gain the skills and have the experiences I needed to find and fulfill my purpose. When I was working with Deepak Chopra as an instructor in his meditation program, we often talked about purpose.

Finding our purpose really is a part of our purpose. It’s like a treasure hunt! And when we get there the rewards are many. Deepak introduced me to Vedanta, and I studies the Four Yoga Paths that are a part of the philosophy. Dharma is the Sanskrit word that means teachings and purpose. Our purpose is how we learn about ourselves, our purpose is our path. It’s our learning style. I wrote a book called “What’s Your Dharma: The Vedic Way to Your Life’s Purpose” to help others find their own path. It’s not always easy, but it’s ultimately the best thing in the world.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I started my career at ABC Entertainment. Then I worked at a magazine, and I then took time to be a full-time mom. Which didn’t last long because I just can’t do only one thing. When I played children’s music for my two boys there was nothing I liked, I thought it was so meaningless and I wanted them to be memorizing words that were meaning-full! So I started writing songs, found a partner to put them to music, and founded a record label Bright Ideas. Those kids songs started out on cassette tape back in the day, and now they’re up on Spotify and other platforms digitally. That’s the great thing about kid’s music is that it is evergreen. New kids are born every day so you have a new audience all the time!

I started working as the reporter at a local television station. It was a small station, so they offered to pay me in “trade” for studio time instead of money. Great deal for me, I used that studio time to make music videos of my songs – and I sent them to Nickelodeon where they aired for years as “interstitial” programming – filling in the spots between shows. It was amazing! Now they are on my YouTube channel – but since we used to shoot on video tape back in the day the quality is not great – but you’ll get the idea and hear the music just fine.

Then my singers got famous and went off to Broadway, so I set music aside and focused on writing books. My first book was a parenting book, it’s in a new, updated version now on Amazon called “Awakened Parenting: Family Life as a Spiritual Path.” I kept writing books and now I have 17 titles out.

My books were often informed by what I was learning. After my divorce I thought I was happy, but there was a part of me that just couldn’t be. It was a struggle. I knew I needed closure – and I took all the difficult steps to understand how that process works. That struggle turned into my book “Closure and the Law of Relationship: Endings as New Beginnings.” And that book because a course on Udemy.

As a result of research I did for the parenting book I discovered Ayurveda – and that’s how I met Deepak Chopra. Ayurveda is so beautiful, I loved it right away. I never wanted to be an Ayurvedic doctor, so I became a self-titled “Ayurveda Ambassador.” I wrote about Ayurveda and promoted it like crazy with articles and blogs and talks. I went to India and filmed a 7 hour Ayurveda course with Transformative Learning Solutions called The Ayurveda Experience. Because of my book “What’s Your Dosha, Baby?” I was invited to Amsterdam, where I spoke to young people about how to find partners using the Ayurvedic relationship system of learning about the doshas, the Ayurvedic mind/body types. And through Ayurveda I came to Vedanta. And through Vedanta I found the Bhagavad Gita. I began classes at the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 2015.

Now this is my focus. The Bhagavad Gita is the second-bestselling book, and the second-most-translated book in the world. But it’s not well known or understood here in the west. It is my goal to bring the Bhagavad Gita to a modern western audience in a big way.

Swami Sarvadevananda always encouraged us in class to memorize verses of the Gita. I found that difficult. It’s written in Sanskrit as a song – but when translated into English the rhythm and rhyme is lost. So I decided to write a new version, an abridged version with only the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, and to write it in English writing verse, like one very long poem. About half-way through I started questioning my efforts, and showed my Swami what I was working on. I basically asked him for permission to keep going, I didn’t want to do anything wrong or disrespectful in regards to this beautiful and ancient text. He gave me more than permission, he gave me his blessing. He encouraged me to continue. And I did. I wrote “Song Divine: A New Lyrical Rendition of the Bhagavad Gita.”

My songwriting days kicked into gear as I started hearing melodies when I was writing. When I completed the book, I approached my friend Vito Gregoli about helping me turn the book into an album. Three years later we released “Song Divine: The Bhagavad Gita Rock Opera.” Every chapter is a song, so it’s super easy to memorize the verses. I consider this to be my biggest accomplishment to date! This is something that has never been done before, and I’m so proud of how it turned out. I even got Bollywood superstar Sonu Nigam to sing the song from chapter two. The album is streaming on music platforms everywhere.

Vito and I just came out with a new album called “We Share the Moon: Inspired Love Songs.” It’s a collection of ten original songs inspired by saints and sages from throughout time and cultures. That’s everywhere now, too!

I also wrote a children’s book based on the Gita. Rajesh Nagulakonda, who did all of the artwork for my books and albums, illustrated “You’ve Got This, Arjuna!” and we got a wonderful publisher in India, AdiDev, to distribute world-wide.

Now I’m working on turning Song Divine into a stage play, and also a movie. At the same time I’m doing my newsletters, speaking once a month at church, attending Vedanta classes, volunteering at the Temple, and keeping up with social media. And I can’t wait to go back to India – I’ve been there four times now.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1) Resilience. You just have to keep going no matter what. When you really love what you are doing, and have that drive, that self-intrinsic motivation, you can’t help it. That’s when you really know you’re in your dharma. You can hear no and get rejected and criticized, but when you have firm conviction that you are on the right path, you’ll find the right people to support you, you’ll find the audience who appreciates you.

2) Self-Discovery. You have to know who you are. There is more to life than work. You are not your job, you are not your career, you are not any of the roles you play. Find out who YOU are – and that is the strongest foundation you can stand on no matter what you do or where you go or what happens in life.

3) Faith. You can call it belief, or optimism, but this is key. Know that everything works out the way that it is supposed to. There is a reason for everything. Even for the difficult, hurtful, stressful challenges we face. It’s all meant to prepare us for something more, something greater. And most of the time you don’t realize it when it’s all happening – but there comes a time when you look back and say: oh, I see now.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
This is interesting to me because I can’t point to just one person. I’m very grateful for all the teachers I’ve had in my life over these many years. Teachers in school who pushed me to do better, my drama teacher who encouraged my creativity, Louise Taylor who helped me get started in writing, Deepak Chopra who introduced me to Ayurveda and a community of like-minded people, and now Swami Sarvadevananda who is wise and kind and gracious in every way.

But there are other teachers in my life, like my kids, who have taught me patience, and resilience, and determination. My parents taught me independence. My sister and I have been there for each other through tragedy. My friends who help boost me up when I have self-doubt.

Relationships are so important – they are probably our greatest tools, our greatest assets for growth in this life. This world is designed so that we can help one another learn and grow.

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