The Slow Coach.

Julie Murray: healer, coach, educator, artist and life-long learner.

My path to here.

I am a life-long learner and educator with over 20 years of experience working as a facilitator, program developer, curriculum designer, visual facilitator and educator. I am a certified Professional Integral Coach™ and a Canadian Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher with a Master of Education. I am also a meditation teacher and a resident of beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

As a big-picture thinker, I call into question the systems and structures of our society and the impact they have can have on us. I believe that transformative change starts with the individual. So, as a personal development coach and a slow crusader, I work with individuals (and groups) to help them become more deeply connected to themselves, others and their environment so that they can become strong and powerful change-makers in every aspect of their lives.

My own lesson in pausing.

I understand what it means to move too fast. Most of my life has been spent rushing from one thing to the next, always planning and worrying. And then, one day, my body just couldn’t handle it anymore. The practitioners called it adrenal fatigue, and what it meant was that my body had been living in a state of 'fight or flight' for way too long. Like, over a decade too long. 

By 2015, my body had enough and I was told there was only one way for me to truly heal: I had to slow down. This prescription required that I really take ownership over my day-to-day life. Not only did I have to control the quality of my thoughts, but I had to allow my body (and not my to-do list) to dictate the pace of the day. This meant rest, and lots of it.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I was immersed in a crash course on pausing. I came to understand that speed and busyness are not synonyms for effectiveness and meaning, and that there is a more deliberate and more beautiful way to go about this thing called life.  

Now, don't get me wrong. I continue to work on the rather nebulous 'ebb and flow' between being busy and remembering to pause and some days are much more successful than others. 

Now I see that I am the one in control of the pace. I am the choreographer who gets to choose the tempo. Sometimes I need to move quickly, and sometimes it is best for me to slow down. Whatever the pace, I have learned that I always have the ability to be present and aware. And for me, that makes all the difference. 

My commitment to you.

I am committed to bringing you authenticity, curiousity, creativity, self-awareness, balance, playfulness, mindfulness and to going slow enough so I can truly listen.