I met Matt earlier this year at a sacred plant medicine retreat in Byron Bay. Over 2 days, supported and held by the most incredible group of light beings, our souls went through a deep remembering of who we are, remembering the medicine that is already within us.
With a shared passion for spiritual study, all things divine and helping others, I knew Matt was someone i wanted to interview, to share his wisdom onto others. Matt is such a kind and wise soul with a beautiful, encouraging heart, walking the path of blessing, uplifting those around him.
Enjoy as Matt takes you on an awakening journey through a life with intention.
Hi all, i'm Matt and I am an American expat who is lucky enough to live on Australia's Sunshine Coast. My immediate world includes clear blue skies, farmlands, forests of gum trees, and clean sandy beaches. As a former resident of rainy Seattle, I am grateful to now live in the sun.
My current life includes working as an academic in a Uni while also serving as a meditation coach and teacher. There has always been a drive in me to explore the grace that lives within me, starting from my Catholic upbringing to my current fascination with the power we each have to bring positivity to our immediate environment. My work is about supporting people in finding the natural grace we all have and learning to work with it.
What is Your Intention?
My intention is to embody and direct the divine energies that come through me. To enter into the flow of these energies more fully. I've been around the world in terms of spiritual study, including hindu tantra, shamanism from a few indigenous traditions, and reiki mastery. Many of the spiritualities that I have practiced contain the same simple truth: we are of divine origin and that divinity radiates within us constantly. My intention is about living that truth and about helping others do the same. A simple way is to talk about the Path of Blessing. We can give blessings to the world by allowing our own natural grace to flow though us to people, animals, plants, and situations. We also have sources of divine blessing continually available to us from the world we live in. To walk the Path of Blessing is to consciously engage with this interchange and to use it to uplift those around us.
How do you stay aligned with Your Intention/s?
This is a great question because it reflects a deeply human condition. We naturally waver from our primary intentions because of our complex lives as we balance our work, family, responsibilities and friends. Also our intentions can evolve as we evolve. In terms of staying aligned, I find it useful to check in with my energy body, to feel how I am vibing in the moment. I think we each have an inner compass that guides us toward Wholeness. While our life experiences may vary, we all have to learn how to read and respond to this compass. For me that involves resting for a moment in my whole energy body and feeling into the subtleties.Â
Do you have a daily ritual or routine to keep you on track? Or are you more of an ‘in the moment’ and flow with the day type of human?
Daily ceremony is very important to me because it makes the bodily presence of Divine Consciousness immediately concrete. My current practice involves bringing light down through my crown from the heavens and allowing it to stream through my body and into the earth. I might do this practice very formally in front of my altar or simply as I am lying in bed awaiting sleep. I am also very much a believer in spontaneity in spiritual practice, so I follow the movements of this energy trusting in the wise motions of life.Â
In 5 words, how would you describe yourself?
Divine Consciousness animates my world.
How do you bring more stillness to your life? I don't seek stillness. Life is in constant motion. Every cell in my body is dancing with the life force. So personally, I think stillness is highly over-rated as a life goal. Instead, I seek to better release myself into the flow of life. To become aware of where I am resisting and restricting the stream of grace that both radiates from my being and also flows into me from the beauty of our great Universe. Learning to let this flow just be.
There are so many incredible tools available to keep us centered and grounded in our truth. What’s one tool you’re currently vibing?
I'm an ardent student of mantra - conceptual tools that bridge mind and body with soul. There are a lot of conflicting teachings out there about what constitutes a proper mantra, who can give a mantra, etc. When you take a global religion perspective, however, you see the idea of mantras showing up in most major religions and with wildly different frameworks for the practice. I like taking this perspective of looking across the many variations of a sacred practice around the world and seeing the underlying patterns. So in terms of mantra: it doesn't have to be Sanskrit, you can choose your own, mantra can evolve as you evolve, and you can also ask divine presence how to plant this seed very deep and how to tend it. When I teach about mantra, some people are aghast when I suggest that they can repeat one in their own language, in words that already have deep meaning for them. Lets focus on finding divine tools within our current environment, in our present reality. We really are enough.Â
Give us some gold you’ve been able to find while sifting through the self-development dirt pan?Â
There is so much dirt! We westerners have swallowed a whole bunch of misguided wisdom from eastern religions which often relies upon a rejection of our basic humanness - emotions, desires, intimacy and personal sovereignty. Here is my gold: We are fundamentally good to the very core. Our healing is about learning the truth of that. And finding the courage to live from there.Â
What are your top 3 tips for health, healing & growth?
I have only one tip here, but its a profound one so get ready. Learn how to check in with yourself about what you need - both for the present moment and for the larger scheme of things. The wisdom is right there when we are present, as well as the passion for carry out actions. This is my constant learning edge. Having a history of significant trauma, I have had to build up the ability to check in - to check the inner weather report - one particle at a time. I've still got a ways to go, but I'm getting better at it. Right now, I am very good at understanding the weather report, but forget/avoid checking in sometimes when most needed. There is also the pattern of getting a clear report, but not also opening to the existing passion to put those inspirations into action. Always learning.Â
Any last words or advice for those creating an intention led life?
Your heart vibrates with beautiful prayers which are beyond words. These prayers can be discovered and felt and lived. What light-filled prayer is radiating in your heart right now?
Connect with Matt here:
Right now, its best to find me on Insta at path.of.blessing. I'm hoping to have pathofblessing.com live in the next month or so, where I'll be giving free Zoom-based Teaching Talks and Blessing Transmissions (guided meditations exploring our indwelling divine presence.) I'm very excited about this project. Sharing space, holding space with my fellow travelers, exploring the giving and receiving our natural grace in natural ways, building our innate goodness.Â
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