I’ve always hated taking out the trash. We all have chores around the house that we like more than others. For me, I would rather clean 100 bathrooms than take out the trash.

Who knows why, it just is what it is.

As I have graduated from Naropa University with a Masters in Counseling Psychology, and have come on the other end of one of the most transformative experiences of my life to date. I find myself a changed person. Not just professionally, but personally. I see the world differently and I see my place in it differently. I hold a different intention for my day. I understand my patterns and why they are there. I have an ability now to watch my actions from almost a third party perspective, and for these things…I am grateful.

One of my biggest lessons as I powered through the three year program, is taking out the trash.

We are all inundated with the voices in our heads, filling us with criticism and judgment, telling us to act in certain ways, and alluring us down certain paths.

It is that metaphorical trash, that has always kept me structured into a very particular kind of “Greer.”

A kind of Greer that served a purpose at one point and provided benefit for my life. It was the ultimate breakthrough when I realized that the Greer that existed in that realm, actually wasn’t authentic. So I slowly started to live out my least favorite chore: taking out the trash.

To this day, I am appreciative of the fact that I have such a powerful intention to live a simple life. Simple in the sense that I am now able to acknowledge the elements of life that are important to me—partnership, human experience, mother nature, and above all else…relationship. For me it is about slowly shedding away my immediate inclination to act from an auto pilot space, and really learn to live in this moment. This exercise for me started painfully.

I realized that so much of my identity and persona was a bunch of garbage, that while I was happy and content, I wasn’t thriving. I started relating to the garbage in my life and slowly started to remove it, piece by piece.

As I begin my own private practice and start this whole new chapter in my life, I am constantly staying mindful of the sanctity of the human experience. I am appreciative of those growing pains, and I keep fresh in my mind the power of the spirit.

We are evolving daily, and I know that is a process that will never stop.

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Greer appreciates the quiet of the early morning hours.  Proudly representing herself as a “realistic optimist,” she thrives on challenging herself in the workplace and on the playing field.  She works for a startup company called TherapySites, who specializes in providing web based solutions for mental health care practitioners and gets geeked out over riding her single speed mountain bike.  The work keeps her stimulated and always tests her creative edge and business savvy.  She references the words of Kahlil Gibran often and appreciates the wisdom of his words.  One of her favorite quotes “Work is love made visible.  And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”    Game on.