For Beverly Sastri, the word "coincidence" shouldn't
define those illuminating moments in a person's life, when something
fantastic happens due to a seemingly random convergence of circumstances.
"People have a tendency
to think of their lives as, 'If I'm lucky, I'll be in the right
place at the right time,' " says Beverly.
Instead, she explains, there's
a way to invite such serendipitous moments, which Beverly defines
as "confluences," into your life everyday.
"A confluence is a meaningful
coming together of events. When you send out a thought, it's like
sending out a ripple in the energy pool. It bounces against something
and comes back."
One of Beverly's goals through
her work is teaching people to be available to receive those ripples.
"If you can be totally open
to possibility, then things will shift. We create our own reality,"
says the Guilford resident.
On Nov. 27 at 1:30 p.m., WLIS
Radio 1420 AM, and WMRD 1150 AM will re-air Beverly's Nov. 22
guest appearance on the weekly radio show Defining Women. Beverly
covered her "Create A Life You Love" series of exercises
on energetic dynamics and interactive techniques, geared to help
people create a vision of themselves and their lives to bring
joy, inspiration, and motivation and reach goals.
"There are opportunities
and guidance available to us every day. I teach people to be more
attuned to that. It's an energetic partnership with the world."
When Beverly says the world,
she's including our physical realm, right down to the last molecule.
"Everything is molecular;
we're molecular. And yet people are thinking, 'It's me here against
everything else, I've got to fight my way out.' Instead, we should
be seeking a natural balance . . . water finds its own level .
. . we are designed to give our gifts to the world, every day.
Why would the universe stand in our way?"
Beverly is a former Fortune 100
national brand-name marketing executive who left her high-powered
career after 13 years because she wasn't experiencing the original
"passion" the work had evoked. Before that, Beverly
had returned to Cornell University to earn her MBA after running
her own business for eight years in upstate New York. As an undergraduate
at Colgate, Beverly earned her BA in humanities.
"I was fascinated with studies
of the religion and philosophies of India and Japan. I loved studying
all of the 'isms': Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen. . . " she says.
Beverly began to reconnect with
the idea of self-awareness while she was still working as marketing
director for the NBA sponsorship of Schick products for Pfizer/Warner-Lambert
in New Jersey.
"They encouraged us to participate
in [corporate] self-development, self-awareness classes. I ended
up becoming a seminar manager, kind of like a production manager,
organizing classes three times a year for the trainer."
Along the way, Beverly became
a "coach" for a program, usually coaching 10 to 20 people
a week, helping continue their efforts to become more self-aware
and better self-developed.
"The trainer taught me how to get rid of my own emotions
and fears so I could be present for them. I learned how to get
rid of the drama of emotions! When you get caught up in the drama,
you don't get the wisdom."
That's not to say it isn't ".
. . absolutely important to feel emotions," Beverly stipulates.
"You have to learn to know and honor your emotions; and also
how to then say, 'What is this emotion telling me?' "
Hearing that inner voice is a
huge step toward achieving the creation of a life you love, she
adds.
"Everybody has this inner
voice. You can call it higher truth, deep knowing, a clear voice
within . . . whatever it is that you know it as, turn up the dial
on that, so you're not just using your brain all the time. Your
brain is a wonderful instrument, but it's linear. It's designed
to be inspired by this voice."
Beverly learned to listen to
her own inner voice after exploring many different contemporary
and classic self-awareness programs. She was encouraged by friends
to continue coaching after she left her job, and soon began teaching
her PowerSource practices, a program which led to the development
of the "Create A Life You Love" series.
Beverly gives recognition to
contemporary author Sandra Ingerman for allowing Beverly to incorporate
one of Ingerman's exercises in her own program. Ingerman's exercise
teaches ". . .how to get in touch with your higher truth,"
explains Beverly.
Other elements of the program
are purely Beverly-powered. Sometimes, her ideas develop from
what she terms her inspirational "pop-up thoughts."
"It could come when you're
pondering something and you're not getting it. Sometimes they
pop up, and if it wasn't what you were originally thinking about,
you tend to dismiss it."
Most of Beverly's pop-up thought
seem to strike at 5:30 a.m. or so in the morning.
"I do wish the universe
would find another way to do this with me," she says, laughing.
Instead of grumbling about being
wakened from a sound sleep, Beverly has learned to keep pen and
paper by her bed.
"My thoughts are my brain
doing the ground work; teeing up the ball. It's your energy that
sends that ball flying."
As soon as listeners take in
one of Beverly's lectures, or enter her home office in the woods
off Durham Road for individual or group sessions, the fact that
Beverly has found her own energetic partnership with the world
is very evident. What's also clear is that this slim, energetic,
optimistic, and intelligent woman has a sense of how to inspire
others.
"None of this is complicated.
I give you a set of tools, and you go out and play with them in
the world," she says.
For more than seven years, Beverly
has been helping people create a life they love. She's gathered
many of her clients from people who were enthralled by what they
heard at one of Beverly's many speaking engagement or local classes.
She ran classes on her program at the Guilford-based Women &
Family Life Center, while she served on its Board of Directors
from 2002 to June, 2004. All proceeds from Beverly's classes were
used to supply scholarships to the center.
"Their mission in the community
is wonderful," says Beverly of the center.
Next spring, Beverly will begin teaching a class at Gateway Community
College, "Success Through Inner Access." Just as she
has been teaching others, Beverly has learned to be receptive
to confluences in her own life. Lately, such confluences have
helped her program to grow exponentially.
Last spring, working with a friend
who happened to be a director, Beverly voiced "Create A Life
You Love" as a self-help compact disc. The two-disc set is
available locally at Breakwater Books in Guilford and at R.J.
Julia Booksellers in Madison. The series can help people seeking
to better attune themselves to their inner voice at any age, in
any circumstances - from CEOs to soccer moms.
"Believe in - and follow - your joys and passions in life.
They're there for a reason. The things you love are the things
you are supposed to be doing in life," she says.
