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 “You Answered the Call” Melissa Corter– Sedona, AZ – Artist, Author, and Intuitive Certified Life Coach

To contact Melissa please go to http://melissacorter.com/

I met Melissa while we both attended The Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.  Melissa was in school to become a licensed massage therapist along with developing her healing and intuitive gifts.  Melissa like many of us, went through a point in life early before we answered the call,  where it appeared we were lost and struggling to figure out our direction.

Melissa decided to pick up her camera and took classes for photography at a point where she was trying to distance herself from her intuitive and healing gifts.  She had some fear with these gifts and at one point decided to “ignore” them for the most part.  An amazing thing happened when she started to take photography.  Her intuitive gifts unveiled themselves to become an inseparable part of her photography and she became peaceful with those gifts.  “The Call” knew what she needed to answer it and to be in alignment with her own being.

Her clients are women and business owners.  They often are in the middle of a transition and she helps them step into their power and fully see who they are.  By using her photography, she holds the space for these women to do that. Melissa combines her intuitive insights and coaching with her photography to help her clients thrive and embrace their true essence.

Melissa you are very talented in many areas, photography, spiritual development, life coaching/teaching and creative endeavors. Can you tell me how your journey started out?  How did you answer the call to follow your greatness?

In the beginning when Melissa was young, she would feel and see things but others (family, friends) didn’t understand.  One particular incident is very memorable to her. She was 4, in the car with her brother in the back seat and her mom was driving.  Melissa opened the door, flew forward and she felt something grab her from the back of shirt and pulled her back into the car.  Her little brother was 2 at the time.  When she asked him what he remembers,  he remembers grabbing her and pulling her back into car.  Melissa feels that something came through her brother and pulled her back into the car because the amount of force that pulled her back was not possible if her brother was two. That experience shifted her awareness greatly. She knew there was something greater and more than she could see with her visual eyes.  She felt connected and remembers every day after she had an intention to see what came and just be.

Later in life, Melissa was going through a tough time starting around 15 or 16. She had gotten into using drugs and alcohol. She remembers two opportunities to move to AZ in her lifetime. One of them was a teenager when she was struggling and had an opportunity for a fresh start in unknown territory. Her friends asked her if she wanted to move out to Phoenix.  Something didn’t feel 100% right and she declined. After a time at age 22, she realized this lifestyle wasn’t the way and quit all alcohol and drugs.  Interestingly after she quit drugs and alcohol, she met her now husband a few weeks later in New Jersey. She married her husband and within six months they moved to Phoenix.  She enrolled in school at The Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). Melissa stated going to SWIHA validated her intuitive experiences, knowing and allowed herself to be her true essence while continuing to developing her gifts. Melissa realized she wasn’t alone and others had intuitive gifts and experiences as well.  This was a safe community for her to heal and embrace who she was, to feel safe and trusted her inner knowing and intuition. This was just the beginning of Melissa answering the “Call”.

Melissa, on your journey to answer the call to greatness, even though it may have had ups and downs, when you look back, would you do it all again?

Yes, absolutely!  I see how all those moments and experiences brought me to see what I needed to learn or embrace.  As I have looked back on my life; I realized, if it wasn’t as ugly or intense as it was, that I may not have awoken to who I was or learned what I needed to learn.  I have accepted the dark as much as the light. It is like how a piece of coal becomes a diamond.  A piece of coal has to go through various stages of the right pressure and change before it becomes a diamond.  We are all are diamonds in the making.

Do you remember any one defining moment that changed your whole outlook on life and your journey?

Yes, I had two experiences: I was hit by the “Spiritual 2 by 4”:

One of the first experiences was during a time when, I was bartending in NY and was still using drugs.  I found myself in a stranger’s home, not fully even remembering how I got there, although I recall not being able to drive and the people I was hanging out with after work had to leave. The drugs in my system were making me anxious, scared, and paranoid. On top of these feelings I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t feel safe and felt something was going to go very wrong if I closed eyes. The fear I felt in that moment made me realize I had to change that lifestyle. I made some adjustments but the message had not fully reached me yet and I continued to abuse drugs and alcohol.

This led to the next experience, I was hanging out with friends I knew were no longer good for me.  They were at some guy’s house.  I got that feeling again that something was very wrong.  We all left and they were going to go to New York City and I knew if I went it would be bad.  We had to drive pass my home and I told them I didn’t feel well and take me home.  They didn’t want to so I was assertive about it and they dropped me off.  Once I was home,  all the feelings of danger went away. I found out at a later time that my friends were involved in a serious theft from the house they were at. The items that were stolen were taken to NY to sell for drugs. This experience propelled me forward to stop that lifestyle. I never had a traditional rock bottom like others have had, yet this was probably my equivalent to that.

You are passionate about overcoming limiting beliefs and perceptions that hinder our ability to achieve our greatness.  Can you describe to the readers how you did it?  Any key books, quotes or people that were defining in how you changed your own life?

Meditation saved my life. Yoga Nidra specifically: It really helps a person to lift their ingrained patterns, to allow them pass through and release them.  I love the book “Ask and it is Given” by Abraham Hicks. Deepak Chopra’s “Book of Secrets” gave me the wisdom to see I can direct what his happening in my life and begin creating versus reacting. I started to realize that I was creating the disharmony in my life and realized I could correct it.

What were the top two beliefs you had to overcome to create the life you have now?  How did you do it?

Fear is an illusion and is the biggest belief that I still work on.  I realized, I just need to know “what” it is that I want to create or experience in my life and the “how” will reveal itself. The “how” is not my job, it is spirit’s job.  Breathing and meditation bring me back into the moment to stop the obsessive fearful thoughts I have at times.  I was given a process in my dreams one early morning that also changed my life. It begins with having an awareness of what fears I have and then I use the process to heal each individual fear.  An example of this process is: uncovering the issue, understanding where it originated from, bring healing around the issue, releasing the issue and replacing it with a more positive outlook.

I use journaling to do this process:

On the left side of paper write the fear. Example: “I don’t have enough”.

On the right side of the paper,  write the truth. “In this moment, I have more then enough”.

Discovering the old seed that was planted within the subconscious mind and where it links into might trigger an image, experience or a story. Then releasing it: using energetic modalities to help release and heal such as guided imagery, meditation, shamanic techniques, and Reiki.

What are some of the greatest lessons and growth opportunities you have learned on your journey?

What stands out is how supported I am; within the seen and unseen universe. Once I learned to love myself, I could see, feel and receive that support.

Remember the truth of who you are!  You are a spirit experiencing a physical life not the opposite.

You have a very strong intuitive gift, how does this gift help you daily in your life?

It takes the pressure off. I am constantly learning how to let go of control by trusting in my spirit; I no longer have the weight on of the world on my shoulders.  I just do what I am called to do each day and recognize all the support that exists around me. This helps me find my way to spirit.

Can you describe how a typical day is for you? The daily practices that are a must for your overall wellness?

I struggle with a consistent daily practice of wellness and personal wellbeing.  I meditate daily but the style differs at times.  Before bed, I reflect on what I am grateful for and then send loving energy for the next day to be filled with great experiences.  Then, when I get up, I focus on creating my day which means I have either a goal or a feeling for the day and sometimes both.

Breath work is important to me. I pull an inspirational card. Then I open the door and allow myself to “let go and be”. These things connect me so deeply that I know there is no coincidence, only synchronicity. One of my favorite concepts is to create your day so the day does not create you.

What do you feel is the greatest need for people to be their greatness?

Trust in yourself! This opens the door to self-love and builds up other areas in life.  The more forgiving and compassionate you are, the better decisions you make. Know all is ok and will work out.  When you know better you do better.

What would you tell someone who is struggling with fear and belief systems that keep them from being in their greatness and answering the call?

I understand and have been there and still go there! One thing I really know is that you are only seeing one speck of what is available.  That the fear doesn’t exist even though it appears to be real and bigger than it is. Move through it and feel it then miracles will happen!  We fear the unknown. We have to live on a level of risk to grow and become what we are capable of!

What do you feel, from your experience, is the key to happiness?

There is nothing out there that is going to make you happy. Every opportunity to create happiness comes from within. No matter how much money or material objects etc. you have, those things have expiration dates. Your choice within you creates your happiness. It may be scary, it may have a level of pain and risk but how you look at it and are willing to explore to take those risks, is what matters. Happiness can be emitted from you.  It is a choice to live life from fear or love.  It is a choice to be happy and living from a place of no regrets. Realize, not making a choice is still making a choice!  Simplicity is key; so don’t over complicate things with the mind. Answers sometimes come in the most simple and beautiful form.

Thank You Melissa for taking the time to tell your story and give inspiration to our readers!

Melissa has a beautiful card deck she created called “Nudges from Your Spirit”. A Beautiful Card Deck if you want more daily inspiration!

Are you INSPIRED to ANSWER the CALL that is calling you?