I was born in a dysfunctional family and grew up in the presence of alcoholism and physical violence. My early life gifted me with a seemingly dire context: lack of love, lack of freedom, lack of joy, and lack of abundance. I felt like the unluckiest young being in the world. From the eyes of this child, everywhere I turned there wasn’t another who lived their life against a backdrop of despair and within relentless constriction to the extent that I did. I was for want of anything that could support and inspire the unfolding of my inner soul who cried out for greater.
In the stern grip of this primal wound, I believed that life was an unchangeable, tragic destiny to be accepted and suffered through. But instead, the pain stimulated the longing in my heart to dream of another world for myself. Over time this dream connected me to my life force and empowered me to go out and seek what I lacked. If I had to describe my life up until now, it would be that of a dreamer who sought to create his own reality.
I stepped into countless adventures both of the inner and the outer world, led by a spirit of curiosity and a commitment to self-knowledge, self-development, healing, expansion and growth. In this quest for knowledge, I augmented my native languages of Italian and English with French, German and Spanish believing that maybe the answers had been written in another language. My outer travels started in Italy and lead me to Germany, France, Spain, Morocco, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Bosnia, and the UK.
I became more and more connected to my higher self, and discovered it held all the answers I needed to take me to where I wanted to go, if only my ego and cognitive mind could step aside. Sometimes this higher would manifest as gaining inexplicable insight into something or someone, or sometimes as an intangible inner knowing when something felt right or didn’t. For over a decade I noticed that as I started to ask myself the right questions, my higher self would show up with answers or guide me to even deeper questions.
I came to honor that the only relationship to life that I wanted was one that is aligned emotionally, physically and spiritually. Through this odyssey of self-discovery, I honed a greater sensitivity to the world around me, and my intuition deepened. I found myself in situation after situation offering my perspective to others who were unable to see these truths for themselves. They soon started to seek my advice and guidance. In the richness of these moments of interconnectedness with another, I was most myself. I know now that my emotional misfortune, and the path it unfolded, allowed me to gain greater insight into the richness of life and pain, to fully receive where another was coming from, and support them on their path from despair to light.
At this time, I also had a growing passion for acting. Acting offered a context where the mastery of totally reinventing oneself to embody another life was not only encouraged but a necessity. In 2009 I was accepted to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, ranked in the top 10 in the world. I was one of the 26 students accepted from a pool of 2600 candidates. If there are no coincidences, certainly this “coup” meant greater growth forecasted in my life.
I left a life in Tuscany and signed up for the toughest, most demanding adventure yet. At Guildhall I would spend three years working intimately with the limitless power of words and thoughts, learning to listen and be present. Having to see the world through another’s eyes sharpened my empathy and emotional intelligence. I delved into the exploration of my body, learning the immediacy of physical expression and uncovering the secrets of unconscious body language. I trained my voice, and took my passion for communication to a profound level. I learned to use the power of imagination to create new worlds, working under extreme pressure, and taking performance to peak levels every day, no matter what was happening. I learned to excel under time constraints and identify the steps that would ensure the creation was complete by the time the curtain went up. I learned to lead a company, to be a team player, to go with the flow, adapt, and improvise. I learned to connect with others and understand the law of resonance, attune to group dynamics, and see the interconnectedness of all things.
In the final show of the final year I was given the lead of “Charlie” in the musical Chaplin. In the 150-minute performance, I was on stage for 120 minutes. The show had the audience laughing and crying. On graduation day I was awarded the Chairman’s Prize. It was during the high of this time when I realized that acting in and of itself did not complete me. I recognized even more profoundly that my greatest truth since I was a teenager is that the moments I felt most alive were the times I nurtured and supported others to find their answers, and see them come back to life with trust.
In this moment of divine inspiration Coaching dropped into my consciousness. The following day I researched the best places to train and I began my training the following week.
As I expanded and deepened my expertise in the field of consciousness in the years that followed, my ongoing research and study lead me to discover Kundalini Yoga, a natural complement and addition to my work that would strengthen both my personal practice and my ability to serve others. Training as a Teacher was a natural step to bring this embodied channel to many.
My training as an actor has not only led me to my coaching profession and poised me to be a better teacher, but it has created the context in which I seek to support both individuals and communities to reinvent their lives. A long time ago I recognized that I had a choice to either analyze all the ways the past had shaped my present, or look at the person I wanted to become and allow the future to inspire and transform the here and now.
My mission as a Coach and Teacher is to hold a space of truth and light in which others can come forth and connect with their higher, and co-create in the expansion of this unfolding world. It has been a joyful homecoming to my inner truth, which has held the light all along.