Meet Megan Zwerlein

We were lucky to catch up with Megan Zwerlein recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
This is an interesting topic that reminds me of a quote by Soren Kierkegaard “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” I never set out to consciously find my purpose, but looking back I can see now that I was destined to find it through the pain and suffering that began very early on in my childhood, As far back as I can actually remember, I was struggling to reach an answer to the incessant and unanswerable “why’s”. You know those circular questions we all have about our traumatic experiences, that whatever the specifics were, didn’t matter, because they inevitably got boiled down to “Why Me?”. Why did I have to go through that terrible event or long chain of events? I asked and sought answers for decades which kept me in a limited narrative of re-traumatizing, self sabotage, and playing the victim. I disengaged with life, got stuck in the rut of patterned conditioning, time and time again. In yoga we call this our samskara’s. Like most Sanskrit words there are several meanings, in one context this word can be broken down to mean the imprint your mind receives through past actions. Traumatic childhood events got me to believe I was undeserving of anything good and beautiful, the pain was overwhelming and incomprehensible. As I kept asking why, the answer got less important to finding better questions, and as I started doing yoga, meditating and talking about my story, I found ways to accept and make sense of my pain and suffering. I then became more aware of my tendencies, the soul crushing symptoms that come with abuse and neglect, I grew to understand the difference between who I truly am, behind the masks of who I was conditioned to be. Even my natal chart (astrology) shows my destiny is to break generational trauma and expose the truth of painful past memories in order to find a way to live with joy and love in the present. My career organically grew to leading others inward on their own healing journey, and dealing with the inevitable grief that comes with life. My work got infused with my story, and my courage inspired others to share their own hidden (often silenced) story, the one thing that threads all human life together is our suffering. Now, I know without question, my purpose this lifetime is to help others remember their capacity to heal and that we chose this body to experience the vast array of what it is to be fully alive. Our power to transmute dark to light, create and connect, express and share our unique and authentic gifts with our community. We cannot do it alone. Earth is a delicate ecosystem of energetic balances, I assist people back to equilibrium which ripples outward to help harmonize the collective consciousness, moving toward a more equitable future for the entire living planet, our universal shared home. I found my purpose by aligning with my courage to heal.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I put people at ease. I share my darkest moments, deepest thoughts, most obscure dreams, and absurd stories. I do not shy away from vulnerability to offer an invitation to others to jump into the emotions of life and swim awhile. I hold a container in which others can drop in and open up a conversation with their breath as the language the mind and body speak to each other as spirit uncovers the meaning. I facilitate understanding of how life is an intimate trifecta of physical (body) sensation, emotional (mind) reactivity, and spiritual (energy) vibration. You can’t effect one without affecting the others, nor can you separate any of them. I give people an experience that reminds them of this multidimensional connection that brings them back to feeling whole. It is an imbalance to any of these aspects that knocks us off center and out of alignment. My work brings awareness to the imbalance and helps individuals find the best tools from a wide range of healing modalities, sciences and ritual to realign. Bring the body back to homeostasis and good posture, open energetic flow, become emotionally intelligent and able to regulate the nervous system. It’s not about happy all the time, it’s about awareness and regulation. To make the spikes of highs and lows become broader, more smooth waves, so we feel less tossed around and more buoyant, and thus more able to enjoy the ride.

I am thrilled in the success I have found with streamlining my reiki certification trainings from in-person setting to online for individuals or small groups. This has been a more flexible and fun way to teach others the powerful transfer of reiki healing since I have left my private practice in CT and moved, my kula (community) has still be able to work with me online.

I am pleased to announce my online offerings of yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and other self help tools will be reorganized and accessible straight from my website in the next couple months as I transition away from Patreon and settle into Asheville, NC.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I always knew I was sensitive to energy and very empathetic, I can pick up energetic input instantly and utilize this hyper sensory input to heighten my awareness and strengthen my intuitive hits. Honing skill has allowed me to live more in the present, let go of the hurt, take lessons forward and build the life of my dreams.

I have always been told that I am easy to be around and put people at ease. I attribute this to being so harshly judged by my peers growing up that I eagerly want people to feel like they can be accepted for exactly who they are in my presence, I offer a judgement free zone for people to relax and enjoy their time with me. It has also been interesting to also notice the need for discernment and strong boundaries, as there are  vampires out there and not everyone is deserving of open access. *Hard won lesson!

I have an adventurous spirit and love to have fun and laugh. I felt bogged down by excessive stress in my youth that I wasn’t able to enjoy the innocence of childhood, it has been a wonderful lesson in adulthood to reclaim the magic of looking at life through the lens of my inner child and explore the world more freely inspired to discover the wonder that exists all around.

My advice is to remember we can only take lessons forward to create change, and awareness is the first step. That we have more power than we believe we do, and that what we believe, will be the most important aspect of what we call into reality. So believe in yourself, and that you deserve all that you desire, and then day dream about it often. Keep Going!

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
I decided to uproot my entire life and follow my daughter to North Carolina from Connecticut when she chose a college near Asheville. I got worn down by insanely increasing rents, along with some other unfavorable shifts of dominant culture getting harder to bare, when a friend offered us a Tower (tarot card) moment to dog sit for six weeks over the summer, just like a lightning strike, saying yes changed everything.

I didn’t plan past that time, I jumped without a net, leapt with only my desperate desire for a new way of life, living my purpose and passion smarter, not harder, I left inspired to level up. And I sort of fell flat on my face. By December things got really grim. Some of my darkest days in three decades. I didn’t remember or realize starting over is fucking hard, especially with no leads or community for support.

I had to learn how to ask for help and then receive it. I had to dig deep into the pain that got triggered when feeling unworthy and devalued, not being able to be in service or do my work, that I am so good at, and had been successful independently for so long, was pretty depressing. I had to find a way into the light stripped of all the things I thought I was, all the ways I identified were gone, and I flatlined around the holidays, unsure of what I was going to do, and if I was going to be okay.

I thankfully got reminded of who I was beyond all my tittles by my family and friends and the community I left, up North while visiting, and gathering the rest of my belongings to officially move into my own place, after floating since June. It was essential to see myself from their eyes and not the wounded child within me that felt like a failure. I leaned into the help I was offered and with feeling support, I gained the ability to get back to a place of gratitude. Then to trust…in myself, my wisdom, my talents, and in my ability to create. I remembered my work and my worth, believing again that no matter how low, empty and insignificant life can seem, we are resilient and powerful when we can maintain some shred of hope, and have faith that things will turn around. Even if you can only be grateful for the breath flowing through you, it is the first step to climbing out of the dark.

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