From Silicon Valley Finance Exec to Spiritual Mentor: An Interview with Arda Ozdemir
“Rising toward higher consciousness takes place through the integration of opposing forces between your fears and desires, from where your Real Self naturally emerges.” — Arda Ozdemir
Photo: @rise2realize
I first heard of Arda Ozdemir through a friend who worked in Silicon Valley and saw him for life coaching sessions. He is the founder of the Rise 2 Realize organization and a former finance executive in Silicon Valley. Among Arda’s long list of credentials, he is also a qigong and reiki master, hypnotherapist, mindfulness meditation teacher, and yoga nidra practitioner. I was intrigued by Arda’s transition from successful finance executive to a sought after executive life coach and spiritual mentor. Resonating with my own recent pursuit of a personal calling, I thought, I have to talk to him.
A few in-depth conversations later about purpose, spirituality, and living a life of joy and fulfillment, he did a demo on one of the techniques he developed to help turn emotional triggers to a completely different outlook and energy flow of higher consciousness — a profoundly practical method that can be applied to any emotional setback under real life circumstances. It was a compassionate, non-judgmental, simple yet effective process that made me an immediate fan. I began to understand why Arda is in such demand as a life coach and mentor. He has a rather natural ability to provide a safe space for you to surrender mistrust and feel empowered to take control of your own happiness from an authentic place.
I wanted to explore more of Arda’s personal journey, his knowledge, and the methods he’s developed that have helped thousands of people achieve their highest potential and experience ultimate happiness in the last 10 years.
Q:
What made you decide to leave your successes in the corporate world behind and become a life coach?
A:
Looking back, it seemed like it would be a big decision. Who can leave all that behind, and pursue something completely different than what they had studied in school? But in reality, it was a no-brainer. Even though on paper I had everything at the time — I was happily married for 15 years and was successfully employed as the VP of Finance for a Silicon Valley tech startup, and I was on my way toward becoming a CFO. At the same time, I was getting physically ill all the time. For about two and a half years leading up to July of 2006, I had frequent sinus infections turning into bronchitis and pneumonia, and I wasn’t getting any better. I had to do something about my health. Even though I didn’t know much about how intimate the mind-body connection is, I wasn’t ready to take prescription medication either. So I took matters into my own hands, and started looking for alternative health practitioners to help explain why I was sick, how I got here, and what I could do to heal myself.
After speaking with an intuitive healer based out of New York, I became aware of my depression, emptiness, and how much of what I was doing was not aligned with who I really am. That was the key that turned everything around. Let’s just say that as soon as I started to know myself all the magic started to happen. As I opened up more and more to talk about all the things I’ve buried inside and never talked about before, people from different parts of our office buildings started to reach out to have lunch with me. They would then tell me how much better, how enlightened they felt each time they had a conversation with me. Some of them even told me how much they’ve changed for the better.
They were simply choosing to become a better version of themselves after our interactions. One day, one of them asked me if I thought about doing this for a living which planted the idea that I could actually do this as a career. After a few months of hesitation and fearful thoughts, one of my colleagues set up a YELP page for me without my knowledge, and left a 5-star review. That review attracted a few clients that I started to see on the side while still working full time.
You see, it was not a big decision. I was just following the invitation of life, as opportunities presented themselves in front of me. One day, I vividly remember that the numbers on a page of a finance report that I’ve been familiar with for two decades took a different form in front of my eyes. Those numbers no longer looked and meant the same to me, and that’s when I knew I couldn’t stay in finance anymore. I’ve tasted how deeply fulfilling and meaningful it was to help people and change their lives for the better, and I couldn’t stop doing it. I felt like there were 2 noticeable hands on my back pushing me in that direction. The impulse was so strong that I had no choice but to go with it. I left my job in 2011 with only 4 clients on my calendar for the following week and never looked back.
Q:
What about your spiritual journey: what made you interested in learning qigong, reiki, meditation, etc.?
A:
Again, there was no goal, no plan, LOL. All I had was curiosity for life. What are we doing here? Who am I? What is my purpose? What’s this intimate connection between my mind, my body and my spirit? Why do we feel stuck when we have so much potential? Exploring these questions made me embark on my journey of spiritual awakening which healed my physical illnesses and made me aware of my mental obstructions and limitations that I’ve imposed on my life. I started to open my eyes and say “yes” to the flow of life.
When I ran into an old high school friend randomly one day, I ended up learning reiki from her. Then, I read a book about the subconscious and went ahead and signed up for a hypnotherapy course. Then, another friend introduced me to someone who taught Yoga Nidra so I signed up for the next upcoming workshop without any residual thoughts or hesitation. As a result, in that kind of flow, more and more synchronicities brought different people into my life who ended up teaching me different spiritual and healing modalities. It still feels surreal to me to have learned these techniques and in the end, being able to incorporate all of them in a succinct and profound way in my method to empower others to heal themselves.
Q:
Can you elaborate a little more on what you do for your clients and what most clients come to see you for?
A:
Most of my clients come to me because they feel stuck or lost or confused about life issues, mainly in relationships and careers. I approach everyone with a very open, modest, and non-judgmental perspective that empowers each individual to find their inner strength to rise up in their level of consciousness. I don’t promise anything and I’m not promoting anything. I’m not selling love or compassion or kindness. I also don’t discourage anyone from doing anything they feel the need to do and I don’t stop anyone from being themselves. I’m only showing them the steps of life, the process of getting to know who they really are and why they feel stuck, which propels them forward in where they want to go, toward their highest potential. They don’t need to force higher consciousness, yet, they naturally experience it.
Most people who come to see me are ready to take ownership of their lives and make some changes, and I basically provide a mirror to look inside themselves so they can become more self-aware of their own life experiences. If there is one promise, I would say, it would be the promise of getting them unstuck.
Q:
Can you describe the Rise 2 Realize POWER Method and how you have developed it?
A:
The POWER Method is Phase II of the Rise 2 Realize transformation process. This process offers practical, step-by-step guidance that empowers anyone to identify their emotional reactions to triggers and come up with more effective response strategies.
There are 3 distinct phases:
Phase I: Preparation for the POWER Method with self-observation meditation
Phase II: Application of the POWER Method
Phase III: Integration of the polarities within
The POWER Method is a simple and effective tool combining various breathing, grounding, and meditation techniques to dramatically diffuse the intensity of your emotions inside the body, so you can better deal with any situation life throws at you. A lot of times in life, just as things are going great, we are happy and relaxed, then something inevitably happens that pulls us down, much like sandbags on a hot air balloon. We are then back to where we started, in lower altitudes struggling to climb back up again. The sandbags represent the emotional triggers that keep us low and feeling stuck. When we identify those triggers we can lessen the intensity and respond to life events from a higher consciousness level. Otherwise, the cycle of going emotionally up and down repeats itself indefinitely, making us feel even more stuck, lost and confused.
The POWER Method consists of 5 simple steps that you can follow whenever you’re emotionally triggered:
P = Pause to notice and acknowledge your emotions.
O = Observe your thoughts that go through your head when you are triggered.
W = Welcome, by dropping into the body to connect with the physical sensation that the emotional charge creates.
E = Earth, by using 3x3 breath to release the charge out of the body into the ground.
R = React, Respond, or Rise from that state. The three Rs represent three different levels of consciousness.
You can find details of the POWER Method as well as all 3 phases of the process outlined in my new book, The Art of Becoming Unstuck. You can also find guided meditations in the Rise 2 Realize meditation app available for iOS and Android.
Arda offers one-on-one sessions, couples sessions, as well as workshops and mentor certification programs. For more information, visit Rise2Realize.com
Arda’s new book, The Art of Becoming Unstuck is now available on Amazon https://amzn.to/2S3tpOq
You can connect with Arda on Instagram and Facebook. The Rise 2 Realize meditation app is available on both iOS and Android.
