We shall find peace. We shall hear angels.
We shall see the sky sparkling with dia­monds.
~ Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Today I have Evita Ochel, from Evolv­ing Beings, here.  Evita is a won­der­ful and dear friend, and really a beau­ti­ful soul who touches other’s hearts with her car­ing and com­pas­sion­ate love. 

Read along, as I sit down with Evita, and she shares a bit about who she is, and where she is at on this amaz­ing jour­ney of her life.

1. Tell us a lit­tle bit about who “you” are (fam­ily, career, any spe­cial life expe­ri­ences you’d like to share, etc.)
I am a being, who cur­rently lives in Canada. I was not ini­tially born here, and no mat­ter where I live  on this planet in the future, I sim­ply con­sider myself “Earth­ian” today. I love trav­el­ing and explor­ing this Earth, and to date have vis­ited over 15 countries.

Inter­nally, I am a pas­sion­ate truth seeker. I have a very pro­found love for nature. In fact, I have a huge pas­sion and respect for every sin­gle species on this Earth. I am called to one­ness with all and hold deep grat­i­tude for this amaz­ing planet and how it sup­ports us.

I am mar­ried, but more than this, am in an incred­i­ble unity with an amaz­ing being who not only brings out the best in me on a daily basis, but inspires me to con­stantly grow and expand to my high­est potential.

In terms of career, as a teen I always had a strong inter­est in the health and sci­ence field and after my for­mal edu­ca­tion became a high school sci­ence teacher. I loved being a teacher, and had no doubt that this was not only my call­ing but also one of my life’s pas­sions. How­ever, as I taught and took very seri­ously to prac­tice what I preach, I grew in many ways. It was at this time that I began to feel the lim­i­ta­tions that this posi­tion had on my per­sonal evo­lu­tion, and so in June of 2009 I resigned from this posi­tion to become a teacher on a global level. I got some more cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the areas of holis­tic health and nutri­tion and today am a writer, researcher and speaker in those areas, as well as in the areas of spir­i­tu­al­ity and con­scious­ness expansion.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  I’m drawn to your descrip­tion of your­self as a “being”.  Just the way you say that, it feels like you are much more than just your human self.  There’s this real feel of con­nec­tion to every­thing in this uni­verse, and to this idea that we share this Earth we live on with every liv­ing thing.  What a beau­ti­ful view of the world!   

2. How long have you been blog­ging, and what led you to start writ­ing?
I started the first of the three sites I cur­rently run, 2 years ago. That was Evolv­ing Beings.

Hav­ing gone through amaz­ing per­sonal trans­for­ma­tions in the 2 years prior to this new ven­ture, there was so much inside of me that wanted to be shared with the world. I felt a very strong call­ing to have a chan­nel through which I could reach as many peo­ple as I could world wide. I felt like I dis­cov­ered the secrets to inter­nal peace, ful­fill­ment and hap­pi­ness, and wanted to help as many peo­ple as I could out there.

My hus­band knew that I had a pas­sion for writ­ing, as well as what “blogs” were (I didn’t before this time) and so he sug­gested that I start a blog. Between his web devel­op­ment skills and my writ­ing skills, Evolv­ing Beings came to life.

A few months after that I felt the same strong call to have an out­let for my health, sci­en­tific and nutri­tion knowl­edge to help peo­ple lead health­ier lives. This gave rise to Evolv­ing Well­ness.

Finally, later on that year, being a nature lover, and poet at heart, I started Evolv­ing Scenes where I share my pho­tog­ra­phy and short inspi­ra­tional pas­sages, in hopes of awak­en­ing a deeper love and respect for nature and life in people.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  I first con­nected with you on your Evolv­ing Beings site.  What I’ve also found since that first con­tact, is that all of your sites just com­ple­ment one another so well.  I see that as the care with which you show in each of these places, and how it all con­nects back to you in very mean­ing­ful ways.     

3. What is the deeper pur­pose of your three sites?
That would be to awaken peo­ple to their high­est state of being in every aspect of life.

Too many of us live and have lived on auto pilot for far too long. We don’t act con­sciously, we don’t speak or even think con­sciously. The major­ity of thoughts in our heads are neg­a­tive, com­pletely sub-conscious and virally dri­ven. We are dri­ven by many col­lec­tive fears, greed and other var­i­ous soci­etal pressures. 

And all this would be com­pletely fine if we were happy, but we are not. The major­ity of peo­ple live in unprece­dented stress, emo­tional pain and do not truly know who they are or what true peace and hap­pi­ness really feels like.

I didn’t have to wait till I got diag­nosed with a dis­ease or suf­fered some tragic loss in my life to wake up and start mak­ing the most of life. Thanks to the right mate­r­ial, I “woke up” and com­pletely trans­formed my think­ing, my habits and my lifestyle from every angle. I achieved peace and hap­pi­ness like I never thought pos­si­ble. For the most part, I felt like I tran­scended fear and pain.

And that is what I want to help oth­ers with, through my writ­ing on the sites. I want to inspire peo­ple to feel that same heaven I feel each day too, for I know it is possible.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Evita, know that you have a such a car­ing way of touch­ing upon these deeper parts of the human soul.  This is a beau­ti­ful gift you have.
 
4.You live in Canada.  Tell us about some­thing amaz­ing that you have done or place that you have vis­ited in this coun­try you live in. 
What I love about Canada is the lush, vast­ness and diver­sity of its land­scape. I have been to the Gaspe coast and seen some whales jump. I have vis­ited Que­bec City and appre­ci­ated its intri­cate Euro­pean like appeal and archi­tec­ture. I have been to Nia­gara Falls and enjoyed its breath­tak­ing mighty pres­ence. I also travel to our so called “up north cot­tage coun­try” almost on an annual basis, and expe­ri­ence some of the most beau­ti­ful and serene places on Earth.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  You make me smile, Evita.  Up north!  Hmmm…I think for myself and most of the read­ers here today…you already qual­ify as up north, just by the fact that you live in Canada!!  I know what you mean though.  That’s a com­mon say­ing here to, to go “up north”, which is really about get­ting back to nature, leav­ing the hus­tle and bus­tle of daily liv­ing behind, and really feel­ing a stronger con­nec­tion to this amaz­ing Earth we live in com­mu­nity with.  So, I wish many moments of con­tin­ued beauty “up north” and in all the journey’s life takes you on. 

5.  Evita, when I think of you, I draw upon a deep spir­i­tual ground­ing that you have.  Could you elab­o­rate on this spir­i­tual path, and what it means in your life?
I am really glad I have to say that you used the words “spir­i­tual ground­ing” Lance, for that is exactly how I feel. I love expe­ri­enc­ing myself as a spir­i­tual being, while respect­ing this phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence. I try to be bal­anced in both places at all times in my life today, and this has served me very well in every aspect of my life.

That deep spir­i­tual path is the foun­da­tion of my life today. It is my rock. From it I draw my thoughts, words and actions. From it I draw my courage, con­fi­dence and faith.

For the first quar­ter of my life I lived very much like the major­ity of peo­ple today, see­ing only the phys­i­cal, with some small hints or flashes of some sort of spir­i­tual aspect. Ever since I embarked on my spir­i­tual jour­ney how­ever, life has taken on a deli­cious new depth. It has allowed me to tran­scend so many typ­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions and con­straints. It has made me a much bet­ter per­son. It has drawn out of me a deeper love and respect for all things and beings. It has made me more under­stand­ing, per­cep­tive, open minded and non-judgmental.

Today, I can­not imag­ine liv­ing any other way, and I love where this spir­i­tual path con­tin­ues to take me.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Evita, one of the many things that comes to mind when I think of you is love.  It’s a love that just shines with such deep respect for life.  And that is life in many forms — from the great­est to the small­est.  And in that, I see this deep spir­i­tual con­nec­tion you hold dear to you, and how that is really the basis for the life you are liv­ing.  And that’s a life — in every aspect that I have wit­nessed — that is filled with beau­ti­ful care and com­pas­sion for all liv­ing things.  Evita, know that I see your spir­i­tual essence as a part of your soul…and a part that shines brightly out into the universe. 

6.  One more thing that I’m drawn to is your health-conscious liv­ing.  Have you always lived this way?
On a smaller scale yes, but in no way to the level that I live it out today.
 
Fast food or processed food was never really a part of my upbring­ing so that really helped me get on the right path of health. How­ever, up until just a few years ago I lived with the com­mon par­a­digms that most peo­ple hold, those being that: the four food groups are a must for good health, that doc­tors and drugs make peo­ple bet­ter, that sick­ness is inevitable and that we are vic­tims of our genet­ics, fate and environment.

It wasn’t until I started to really exam­ine each of those pieces on a deeply con­scious, as well as  aca­d­e­mic, spir­i­tual and eth­i­cal level that I real­ized a whole other world and truth. I immersed myself in a lot of research and looked inward, only to real­ize that there was so much to health and well being that we were los­ing out on.
 
Today, liv­ing in bal­ance, or striv­ing always for bal­anced liv­ing is key to me, and I can­not imag­ine hav­ing a won­der­ful spir­i­tual expe­ri­ence, with­out also hav­ing a won­der­ful phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence, and vice-versa. It has become a whole pack­age deal for me to focus con­sciously on the mind, body and soul.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  I’m not sure if you are famil­iar with the study of epi­ge­net­ics (many per­sonal thanks to Katie West for the intro­duc­tion to this field of study), or really how we can change our genetic makeup at the epigenome level.  This is good news!  And it fits so well in line with every­thing you are talk­ing about — and how we CAN change our genes, on some level, and really make strides in our health, for instance.

7.  You are out for a walk one day, and winds of change blow over you.  What hap­pens?
Ooooh – excit­ing things hap­pen! I love change. This is one of the other perks that I have inte­grated into my life in the past few years. I no longer fear change, I embrace it. In fact, I often look for­ward to it. Nature changes con­stantly with such peace and ease, it is only us as human beings who try to resist any kind of change. But change is a part of life, it helps us grow, expand and rise to our high­est level of being.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Just look­ing at our nat­ural world…what a great view of change!  

8. Tell us one unex­pected thing that has hap­pened to you in the last year.
Hmmm, just one eh? Well, I guess that would have to be, being approached by a pub­lisher to write two books for them. Com­pletely out of the blue one day I got a mes­sage if I would be inter­ested in writ­ing these two books a pub­lisher wanted. I mean I knew I wanted to be a writer, but this was a beau­ti­ful sur­prise of hav­ing a pub­lisher con­tact me, instead of me con­tact­ing a pub­lisher. It was a great oppor­tu­nity that gave me some prac­tice with how the pub­lish­ing world works, and also to build up my con­fi­dence for when it is time for me to approach pub­lish­ers with my own book titles.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Evita, that is won­der­ful news!!  Hav­ing read your mate­r­ial now for well over a year…this pub­lisher is onto some­thing!   Your writ­ing is deep and mean­ing­ful.  More than that, though, it touches upon some­thing that includes a part of your soul. And this is where you shine, in the heart and soul you put into all that you write.    

9. If you had to pick one thing as your great­est achieve­ment, what would it be (and why)? 
It would have to be hands down attain­ing the inter­nal spir­i­tual peace that I have found to date. Lance, not a day goes by hon­estly where I don’t feel amaz­ing grat­i­tude for where I am in my life at such an early age. Some peo­ple may not see this as an achieve­ment in the typ­i­cal sense of the word, but for me it very much is.

At this point in my life, it is not about what degree I got or what job, car, house or what­ever the sim­i­lar case may be. I am not a seeker of fame or for­tune. Today for me, it is about whether or not I found a way to live my life with peace, integrity, authen­tic­ity, love, joy, and bal­ance. And for the most part that answer is yes, and that is what makes me the most happy today.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  This answer is so filled with beauty and love.  Evita, you radi­ate this grat­i­tude in all that you do!  And the beau­ti­ful thing about this is that your sin­cere con­nec­tion to what mat­ters, this very deep spir­i­tual peace, is some­thing that helps oth­ers to feel more peace in their own lives.  I per­son­ally feel this every time we inter­act.  So, know that I com­pletely see you liv­ing your life with authen­tic­ity, peace, joy, and love.    

10. Deep-down, Evita, what makes you, “you”?  And what does a typ­i­cal day with your hus­band involve?
Well, I will start with what a typ­i­cal day looks like for me and fin­ish off with what really makes me who I am…

Our typ­i­cal day can be explained by 5 words: love, peace, cre­ation, seren­ity and laugh­ter. Our days typ­i­cally begin some­where between 8 and 9am. From there we go to the kitchen together to have break­fast, whose sig­na­ture ingre­di­ent is always some sort of a green smoothie. There is no rush­ing or stress of any kind. Nor­mally, we have nowhere to go or must do’s. Some­times break­fast lasts 15 min­utes, and some­times up to an hour, as we began to dis­cuss the joy and pos­si­ble cre­ations of a new day.

From there we go to our “work room” where we have 2 desks that face each other. We both work from home and this lets us spend a lot of qual­ity time together, as well not be tied to any par­tic­u­lar loca­tion.  We cre­ate our pas­sions, we talk, we laugh, we bounce ideas off of each other. Nat­u­rally we have lunches and din­ners together and some days are inter­spersed by yoga classes. I can­not tell you how blessed I feel to spend each day with not only my hus­band, but my best friend and an amaz­ing co-worker.

As for what really makes me “me”.… my strength, inde­pen­dence and calm state of mind, as well as love and pas­sion for life. Life is a pre­cious gift, and I love expe­ri­enc­ing it every­day to the fullest!

—–

Lance, thank you so very much for invit­ing me to this inter­view with you. I appre­ci­ate so much all the work you do here on this site and in our world today. You truly are a light­worker, as you spread so much love, joy and kind­ness wher­ever you go. It is really such an amaz­ing honor to be fea­tured here on your site and call you a great friend.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Evita, I’m going to share my take on what makes you “you”.  Our paths crossed well over a year ago, and in that time, I have truly come to love the per­son you are.  And that is because of who “you” are.  I think of this peace and calm­ness about you…one that makes oth­ers feel at ease in your pres­ence.  And then there is this gen­uine warmth.  A warmth for life…although deeper than that…really a gen­uine warmth and car­ing for every liv­ing thing on this earth.  That is a warmth that touches me at my core.  You are so real, so approach­able, so uncon­di­tional in the love you share from your heart.  That is “you”.  And that is true beauty. 

Clos­ing Thoughts:  As I have touched on above, you have such a beau­ti­ful view of life.  It is a view that feels so con­nected and grounded in the depth of your soul, Evita.   In every inter­ac­tion we have had, I always feel a deep sense of peace.  That is you, shar­ing the purity of your heart.  That is you, car­ing with every ounce of your being.  That is you, shar­ing the love that is beau­ti­fully within you. 

The sky does indeed sparkle with dia­monds.  Evita, know that you are a bright and sparkling dia­mond in my life. 

You can keep up with Evita by sub­scrib­ing to Evolv­ing Beings, and fol­low­ing her on Twit­ter.