About

What is Monk at Work all about?

In a nutshell, it’s about you doing your best work, peacefully.

In a bit more detail, it’s about using all of your “inner resources”—your intuition, your whole mind, your heart’s spiritual connection, etc.—to understand how to apply your “outer resources”—time, organizational strategies, website, social media, etc.—to bring your contribution and message out to the world.

The “peacefully” piece comes into play because too many people are too stressed out, trying to keep up with it all. Is it really success, if you’re too burned out, exhausted, or sick to enjoy it?

Are you a monk?

Nope, just an ex-spiritual & energetic intuitive healer who enjoys his time alone (when he gets some).

Are you a guru? Should I bow?

No. God, no. Please don’t. Unless you’re Japanese; then it’s cool. I’d be happy to bow back.

Have you always been spiritual?

(past jobs, maybe)
I actually didn’t start getting into spiritual stuff until college, really. I was studying Chinese internal martial arts, and the ideas of Taoism really resonated with me. Then I got into Sufism, and studied that for ten-plus years, along the way realizing that duality isn’t really where it’s at, for me, at least. You could say my Taoism came into my Sufism…

… which eventually blew it apart, until there was just… one. And I’m cool with that.

Did you grow up wanting to be a healer? Or a webdesigner?

Naw… my parents are artists, so design is something that’s always been around me.

What I really wanted to be growing up was a Jedi. Seriously. Wouldn’t that be cool? I didn’t meet anyone resembling Obi Wan Kenobi in San Diego, though, so I put my aspirations with the Force on the back burner.

I went into college thinking I’d go to med school, eventually, but the sciences kicked me to the curb. I graduated with a major in writing, and a minor in physical education.

Looooong story short: I dropped out of acupuncture school to pursue energy healing, which is where I learned to be a pretty well-respected intuitive. So, I got my Jedi powers after all.*

Being a healer led to having a private practice, which led to me needing a website. I’ve always been a d.i.y. guy, so I learned how. And when my long-time friend Dawud turned me on to WordPress, I was stoked.

When I decided to transition out of being a healer, I started doing web design full-time.

*When you say, “intuition”, do you mean like a “hunch”?

No, hunches are random feelings. Intuition to me is more like having the curtains of reality pulled back, and being able to know just about anything you want, just like Lyra’s alethiometer. And, it’s totally conscious and at-will. You can do it anytime.

In addition to seeing diseased cells and solving health mysteries in people, I’ve seen water damage in a house 2000 miles away, “diagnosed” organizational structures in large corporations, spotted leaks in the brake lines of a jeep that the mechanic couldn’t find, and all kinds of cool stuff like that.

The cool thing is, though, I learned how to do it. I’m not one of those people who born seeing rainbow fountains spouting out of people’s heads and stuff. I worked at it, and practiced a lot before I got good. And I think that’s a good thing, because it means that if you want to learn how, you can, too.

What’s with the CrossFit thing?

CrossFit, in a nutshell, is a fitness program that emphasizes constantly varied, functional movements, performed at high intensity. Really high. You should see the top CrossFit athletes; they’re amazing.

I’ve always been into fitness, since I was 15. I’ve tried all kinds of fitness programs, but got bored with all of them before too long.

I discovered CrossFit in the fall of 2007, and have been hooked ever since. I got certified as a CrossFit trainer in November of 2008, and I train four days a week. Never been stronger.

But it’s not just a “fitness” thing. It’s a life thing. There’s a personal transformation that happens when you apply yourself that hard, that long, that often. It teaches you things about yourself that you didn’t know before.

Anyways, I love it, and it’s a big part of who I am now. I get more into it here and here, too.

What’s with the coconut thing?

Oh, you heard? I’ve got a pretty major coconut fetish, you could say. If I had my way, heaven would be one long coconut bender.

What do you look like?

There’s a picture of me down in the big footer area, in case we bump into each other in the real world sometime. I’m pretty tall, too, so I’m easy to spot in a crowd.