Academic: of or relating to institutionalized education and scholarship, especially at a college or university

Renegade: one who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter; a rebel; an apostate from a religious faith.

One of my enduring objectives is to motivate and empower individuals to have faith in their innate capacity to achieve, rather than simply issuing directives. I gravitate away from roles that are heavily dependent on government and legal oversight, as these frameworks frequently perpetuate the status quo through antiquated influences, rendering people pliant and easily swayed, akin to sheep.

If we are going to work together on accomplishing your wish to improve your soma, aura, and spirit, it would make sense that a level of rapport is established.  I shall begin by providing some background what inspired me to take on this path of service, as well as where the alias comes from.  Note that it is on the longer side, but I feel that it is only fair to share a piece of what I have experienced and why these themes matters to me if one is seeking confidence in working with me.

For much of my existence prior to adulthood, I was never in very good health on any scale of conventional health parameters. 

After experiencing the educational school system as a youth and finding myself less than thrilled by it, circumstances directed me into joining the US Marine Corps shortly after graduating high school, and serving for 5 years of active duty.  It was there that I became more conscious of the need to be attentive to one's physical health, but did not realize at the time that I actually traded one form of health for another, as I noticed both during and after my honorable discharge, that my mental health slowly but surely declined.  Unfortunately, I knew nothing practical about the aura and spirit at the time, and part of the journey to be discussed below may demonstrate that to those that are well versed in the realm of aura and spirit.

Upon returning to NYC after finishing my military contract, I worked briefly as a personal trainer before being appalled by the system that existed at the time working at a particular commercial gym.  The exploitation and expectations imposed, in addition to the lack of knowledge demonstrated many peers overlooked because of the focus on numbers, brought to light the reality that this was not an ideal situation to be involved in.  I knew that this environment was ultimately toxic, but I was seeking a place to belong after I departed from the military.

Yet, I did not immediately make a change until during this same year working at the aforementioned gym, at which time my father became ill with cancer and passed away, but before so, he told me to go back to school and to not stop at undergrad, but to fully complete my graduate studies as well, for I would need it.  I promised that I would do this.

Very shortly before his passing, I reduced my 12 hours day of hustle with no pay unless I actually trained someone to only entering the gym for a duration of about 4 - 6 hours long, focusing on entering only when I was training, and not spending time mindlessly walking around and harassing people to buy training sessions as was the pressured culture.  Management of course noticed this, did not like this, and shortly after, I was released, to my future benefit.

After a brief hiatus approximately a season long, keeping my promise, I utilized the time to recenter a bit, and ultimately registered at a city university, deciding to study the realm of health and human performance. I finished my undergrad studies in 2.5 years, and my graduate studies in 2 years.  Something just did not feel right, however.  I did not feel very "educated", despite my credentials.

I chose to chase the money, and a little vengeance.  Initially rejecting an offer to teach at a university shortly after my graduation, I opted to work as a corporate gym manager a few months after graduation.  My mentality was to take the that gym and turn it into something better than the commercial gyms where I worked at before.  That mindset, in short, was a fiasco, for life demonstrated to me, though I did not realize it at that moment, that it was not my life duty to fix systems in the manner that I chose to do so at the time.

I ultimately returned to academia as took a job as an instructor (not at the same school where I was initially offered the position, that ship sailed with the person that offered it), and from then, I have made a career in teaching at colleges since 2009, and at the upper university level since 2012. 

On the side, I maintained my practice of helping individuals with their health, first using exercise and nutrition as my main modalities, discovering relationship "coaching" in the process, and upon meeting my partner, evolving into general healing, as I began to notice many missing links in my education that was being answered by delving deeper into the work of human energy, and I do not mean the simple biochemistry one learns in school.  This is an energy that is all around us, yet not noticed by our basic senses.

I must admit that it was my time at a massage therapy college, which is where I met my partner, that opened me up to this realm, as well as showed me just how limited my graduate studies actually were, and considering that the massage therapy program was considered an associate level undergraduate program, that was honestly rather embarrassing.  In my eyes, this validated my concern that my degrees meant, and still mean, nothing in the grand scheme, for they are little more than societal validation parchments.  The true learning begins by experiencing, not parroting someone else's work.  Parroting is for clones and sheep that have no will of their own. 

During these revelations, I began to take a view from a different perspective to realize some of the gross limitations that exist in the traditional education system.  To further delve into my observation, especially since I now had experience on the other side of the desk, I decided to take on pursuing another graduate degree, this time in naturopathic medicine, as by this point, I have begun to notice much misinformation being provided as conventional education, which were substantiated during my personal experience working in the healing arts.  I wanted to understand where are we going wrong in education, and why we are in an abysmal state of health, despite all the money we throw at it (granted, "throwing money" is part of the issue, but I will save that part for those that wish to seek money education from me).

Since I needed some of the prerequisite courses before I officially applied, I went back to the undergraduate realm for a bit, attending these courses, and in the process, using this opportunity to further develop my craft.  I used this time to notice how accomplishing "education" took place on the other side of the desk, and the sad reality is that much of the flaws I noticed is also taking place at the graduate level, to include in a program that one would think is meant to provide a wholesome experience to a patient. 

Basically, too much emphasis is placed on grades and status, and not enough on actually educating an individual on how to be connected to their choices to assure that they are pursuing goals for the correct reasons within themselves, emphasizing comprehension, being provided reasons to retain necessary and practical information to maximize one's potential, and revisiting policies that are at best, archaic, and at worst, dogmatic, in order to update them to meet the needs of an evolving psychological spectrum.  Overall, the educational model needs an overhaul.

In short, if I noticed these shortcomings in programs, where multiple dimensions of health are considered, run into major disconnects in education, even when there are some instructors that do indeed attempt to add additional human elements into the course with breathing exercises, mindful writing, and other techniques to be discussed in our services, imagine the rest of academia where such things tend to still be considered "a standard deviation off from the norm".

I am here, in part, to provide education to those that desire it, without a need for antiquated evaluation protocols that do not measure much, while lifting the censorship of education that also occurs.  Concepts that have more than one answer are taught as "possibilities" rather than "this is right, and they are wrong", and most importantly, the importance of educating people on caring for their being via consideration of the three main aspects that contribute to being human at this time will be emphasized.