I sent this testimonial over to @su_dreams privately but wanted to post here too so the right people would find it 💜✨: This year, I wanted to reconnect deeply with my feminine side and just knew that I needed to work with women coaches and be in women-led spaces. I'd been interacting with Su for a while and I loved her energy. Her posts on X were so deep yet so lighthearted, loving, and uplifting. Every time I'd read something written by her, I'd feel like she was speaking directly to me and my energy would shift, something would loosen up, and I'd feel a warm glow in my being. Early this year, I found myself spiraling about a particularly challenging issue. Do as I might, I wasn't able to feel my way out of it. To my joy, Su posted that she was taking on more clients just then, so I reached out to her for an IFS session. I've done about four IFS coaching sessions with Su this year and they have been incredibly helpful. Su is like a shaman—she holds space so that my Self and my parts can commune, allowing true healing, magic, and transformation to happen. She is gentle and competent, and was able to guide me so easily when parts were clashing. One of the most important qualities of a coach is to truly be the facilitator and not the one in the spotlight. Su does this exceptionally well. I was reading No Bad Parts alongside our sessions, and it was fascinating to see how adept she was at navigating even the most challenging parts and relationships. A couple of times I went into what felt like a trance state. Knowing my parts—like, really knowing them and not just as a physical sensation—has been particularly helpful for me. Now I have conversations with my parts and am able to identify which one is present and what it needs. Su's energy is truly on your side, with deep understanding and discernment of what's going on, zero judgment, curiosity, genuine empathy, genuine compersion, and no masks—she is so authentic. I've noticed that immediately after our sessions, I experience a few days of inner spaciousness, peace, and presence. I have more access to my Self energy and feel its "I got this" confidence. The situations that were troubling me just days prior don't feel as daunting anymore—they feel solvable. Once I understand a particular part or parts during a session, it becomes easy to have conversations and develop a more conscious relationship with them. This makes unblending with them so much easier. It becomes easier to access my Self energy during mundane moments and moments of dysregulation. That's such a valuable skillset to have! I felt so deeply safe during our calls—perhaps the safest I've felt in any coaching call to date. What I've noticed is that when I feel so safe, things bubble up from the unconscious that I didn't even know existed in my psyche. During one of the calls, I tapped into an old memory that I hadn't thought about in years. I was shocked that it had come up in the context of something seemingly unrelated. Talking to the parts that presented themselves felt especially meaningful. Even to this day, I carry a deep fondness for one particular part that surfaced and treat it with so much compassion, kindness, and love. People who are struggling to gain clarity in a certain area, who are unable to get unstuck, and who would like to develop a deeper understanding of their internal ecosystem and gain direct access to their Self energy would benefit most from her presence. My overall experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Su has the rare combination of razor-sharp discernment, the ability to truly see what's going on, and the competence to guide even the most challenging sessions while holding a space of softness, deep safety, non-judgment, lightness, and compassion. I would 11/10 recommend her!

Bangalore founders, creatives, explorers - join us this Saturday in Cubbon park! It’s a walk for curious people who enjoy meaningful conversations on a relaxed walk through the woods (usually followed by breakfast) Join us for our 5th walk this Saturday. Link in comments

Folks in Bangalore, we're hosting our second Cubbon Park walk this Saturday! It's a walk for curious people from all backgrounds: entrepreneurs, creatives, tech folks, or anyone who just enjoys good conversation while meandering through the woods! My partner and I recently moved to Bangalore and wanted to connect with people without the awkward "scan my linkedin QR" conversations. So this is our attempt to meet interesting people in the city! The format is inspired by @adamchenchew's Mindful Miles walks in Toronto, something we've loved and now miss! Sign up link in the comments! Join for the serendipity (and maybe stay for the dosas after :))

Learning to concentrate is one of the most overpowered skills a person can learn, esp. in todays environment of obliterated attention spans. But people seem increasingly averse to learning concentration-based meditation techniques. I think this is partly because people are often taught to concentrate in ways that emphasise effortfulness over surrender and relaxation. Many people already feel burdened by a lot of effortful activities and look to meditation as a release from that. But I believe that when taught well, concentration practices can actually be very easeful. It's true that at the beginning a bit of effort can be required to get the concentration flywheel going. But once the mind becomes even a little concentrated, the process gathers its own momentum. I find that when I get into concentrated states, they start to feel like a magnetic field in my mind, that everything else gets drawn into. At this point, the concentration gets deeper not by more effort but by surrendering everything else in my mind into that magnetic field. Like leaves getting sucked into a whirlpool within a river. Letting that magnetic field of concentration take over and allowing all other parts of the mind to relax into it. Gradually more and more parts of my mind get absorbed into that field and the mind unifies. It is a deeply peaceful and restful state. This magnetic field also then becomes something you can call upon throughout the day. Whenever unconscious habits or impulses arise and try to create a current in your mind, you can make contact with the magnetic field of concentration you've cultivated and use it to steer you back towards your conscious intent. It is almost like having a helper spirit or magical power that you can rely on to help with anything once developed. A mind with access to strong concentration feels like a body with access to strong muscles. Also, pretty much any other meditation technique - soft jhanas, insight meditation, metta, somatic meditations, visualisations etc. - becomes both easier and more powerful when it is supercharged by concentrative power. This actually even applies to open awareness practices that many see as oppositional to concentration practices. It is much easier to stabilize open awareness / objectless awareness when you have developed the general skill of being able to consciously choose how you direct your awareness, which is what concentration does. It may seem unglamorous to simply put in a lot of hours learning how to eg concentrate on your breath. And in the early days the results may feel less spectacular or fireworky than some practices. But in terms both impact on agency in daily life and accelerating spiritual growth, few practices have a higher ROI in the long term ime.