We had the good fortune of connecting with Prue Jeffries and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Prue, what inspires you?

Inspiration and meaning are interwoven for me. Life – Nature is a gift and I am inspired by this. From my beginnings I have been deeply, even painfully aware of the need to lead a life of meaning. So how do I know something is meaningful for me? Do I feel moved by it? Is the movement of my heart leading me? Do I feel this visceral and cellular humming? These guide me, with a sense of knowing myself, of developing a good relationship with myself, doing my best with the working of self-reflection, and making adjustments when I sense I need to do so in areas. What are my strengths, weaknesses, my tendencies? What can I do well enough? What am I excited to learn or work on, or improve? Where will I need help and support? Can I see myself doing this for many years? Does this improve other people’s lives? Does it call on me to keep evolving and growing? These are personal needs that are important I have interwoven in my life in some way, in a holistic sense. So far this has been by working as a practitioner and educator in the overall field of Health and Wellness.

I am a deeply experiential being, and enjoy working long hours – when I am inspired and fueled by passion and love for what I do. This of course loops back into meaning. I have interests that are sustainable and life-long. I am constantly learning through those interests, always engaged in an education and refinement process. That’s one of many decades now. I am fortunate that this is what I call my “job”. It is artisanal in many ways. It’s being an artisan of life, and supporting in some way other peoples life expressions.

I arrived at a point in my life where my interests and capacities started to converge and crystallize. Nature and sharing nature based practices are foundational. The seeds were planted generations ago. The roots started developing early in my life – and now one could say I am unfolding my personal Arbor Vitae or “Tree of Life”. We all have one, in the larger forest of life. How is each of us unfolding our Arbor Vitae? It’s the curriculum of life. Inspiration is the nectar supporting mine – perhaps others “`life project” also. How do we grow into the very best versions of ourselves? Inspiration, and the places I find it, which means I do look for it each day, somewhere, helps me to have the courage and conviction to stay committed to what life calls forth from me. Even in times of doubt, or despair or upset that I may encounter.

Inspiration can be a small drop of dew on a leaf or the question – How can I make the world a better place? I was given life – how can I give back to life? The answer doesn’t have to be a large grandiose vision. I more so appreciate a coherent sense of direction and commitment. Small intuitive whispers. What is most significant to me is simple everyday, good intentions and small acts. All count, as they build on each other. With working in somatic movement education and craniosacral therapy, teaching practitioners or leading workshops and retreats, I get to participate and contribute to life itself in some way.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

I have three main umbrellas for what I do. Body of Wonder, Surf the Flow and Vivrelan™. They are all integrated with one another. I needed to find the right mix to communicate what I do. I was a professional surfer originally and just followed threads into therapy and teaching. If I count my years surfing – it’s been an evolution of 40 years working with the body, with water and nature. I am an explorer through and through. Whether it’s traveling around the world experiencing different cultures and the earth’s magnificence or internally into different transpersonal states. I love the mystery of life itself.

Body of Wonder, somatic education and holistic awareness seminars is where I focus my work as a Craniosacral Therapist and Teacher, along with being a Somatic Movement Educator. I conduct 2-year, 700-hour Craniosacral Practitioner Certification Trainings, Vivrelan™ Practitioner Trainings and Continuum – a form of moving meditation – classes and workshops. I also curate retreats in unique places. I am taking a small group to Malta and we will blend the somatic movement and meditation classes of Continuum with sightseeing in neolithic temples and nature based activities. It’s often people who wish to deepen their experiences or resource themselves.

Body of Wonder is a vessel where people can open to embodying a sense of awe and wonder towards nature, towards life. I am deeply passionate about transpersonal or transcendental experiences that are holistic in the sense that they connect individuals to a deepening growth of their own life process – rather than an exit strategy from life.

For me transcendence may imply moving beyond – but I feel it is also an integration process, which can be seen as embodiment. It doesn’t necessarily mean to disembody or fragment or disconnect or leave the fullness of life experience – the physical, emotional, psychological, generational, cultural, symbolic and spiritual. So how do I yolk myself? How do I embody transcendent states in my wholeness of being? How do I move into the fullness of my life expression?.

Surf the Flow has really grown from my surfing days. I focus on creativity – writing and photography, and retreats for Surfers and Stand Up Paddling. What does Flow mean? What comes from inhabiting these states? The retreats have a more active and fitness focus. I weave in a lot of what I have developed from my professional surfing, paddling canoes and stand up paddling. The retreats for Surf the Flow are oriented to people that are interested in water sports and adventure, as well as blending some restorative and meditational practices. I have a way of combining everything that I feel really helps to build resiliency and health in people. I have 40 years of surfing and ocean knowledge, 20 of those years as a professional athlete with high level performance training focus and I have also had extensive training as a therapist, practitioner and teacher over the decades. I made sure I did my own process if I was going to expect that from others I work with or teach. Experiencing flow states or peak experiences are wonderful – yet I am also interested in how that informs a persons’ day to day sense of well-being and the way they relate to others. For me, flow states need to have a deeper meaning or application to living. Not just some transitory experience without a greater relevance to a person’s development. So I am interested in building resiliency and the transformative, which shows up in how we treat each other, nature and our world.

I then have Vivrelan™, which is a holistic awareness process using somatic education principles. I have worked this way with people for a couple decades and developed certification training for practitioners. Vivrelan™ supports movement awareness, self awareness, self-regulation, co-regulation, creativity, resourcing, reorganizing, and renewal.

My creative drive leads the way in all I do. I need the freedom and space to explore, to follow my curiosity and heart. Creating is giving, it’s like breathing for me. I didn’t set out to create a business. What I do today is simply myself walking my life path, my passions and interests – what has meaning for me and sharing that with others. What some would call a business – is for me – simply – what I do supports me enough to keep doing more if it. I can also impact others’ lives in hopefully meaningful ways, and maybe they go on to impact others. Am I fortunate to live this way? I believe so. But that has been a choice I have held to. I have been fortunate to have a choice. To have my mother say to me – “I want you, my daughter, to have choices and opportunities that I did not.”

In my surfing days – I was 6th in the world at some point and worked hard for women’s rights in the sport. Being a woman, there was criticism and prejudices and very little financial compensation. Yet it taught me.  I held true to it for quite some time. It is not the same for women today in surfing, there has been progress in equity. I have something inside me that can hold my line when I feel I have a path I must follow. It may not be a well worn one or one understood by others. It comes with sacrifice and challenges. It is also one where you often don’t know what is next, it’s not always consistent. Security is traded off, and you learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. The unknown becomes your companion. To work for yourself, it is true you need to be committed, focused, disciplined, innovative, flexible, a good communicator that incorporates others points of views and feelings and prepared to work hard. You need to be a self-generative being.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

San Diego is a wonderful city. We have so much to offer visitors. I would most certainly take my guests to Balboa Park and the Museums there. We would also go out on a Whale Watching trip. I would take people Stand Up Paddling and that could be in the ocean or in one of our bays or lagoons in North County. Surfing would also be on the calendar and that could be anywhere from La Jolla Shores to Oceanside. We have so many beaches. Walks and hikes would be a must. The beach hiking from Torrey Pines to La Jolla Shores is still so natural and beautiful – I have heard many people from overseas comment about this. The San Elijo lagoon walks are also wonderful, and along the coves of La Jolla. I think visiting local farmers markets would also be on the list, along with San Diego Botanic Gardens. If my guests had children we would need to go to San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. Places to eat – there are so many. Dessert comes first. I love Extraordinary Desserts. I took my mum there many years ago and she loved it. Flower Child for a casual lunch or dinner is yummy. Coffee – well they do more European-Australian style lattes and cappuccinos at Mrkt Space in Leucadia. Queenstage is also good for an easy breakfast or lunch. For dinner maybe some Italian at Enoteca Adriano.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wouldn’t be here without my mother. She instilled independence in me. Also her pragmatic, down to earth ways were a balance, as I can be ethereal. We were very close. My mum made many sacrifices for her children – I imagine there are ones I am aware of, and ones I am not. Now that she has passed – I still talk to her. I am the person I am today due to her influence. I am also the person I am today – due to my grandmother’s influence, we are very close and talk every day. Her basic goodness and kindness brings me hope and gratitude. I wish humanity could just focus on that common substance more often, and in a sincere way. My grandfather was a carpenter, artist, wrestler, an autodidact – he really inspired me to try many things, to work hard, focus and commit fully. He brought out the artist, athlete, adventurer and innovator in me. He thought that as a woman, I could do all that he did, if not more. In many ways he is still alive in me still. I am deeply thankful for their love, guidance and values I was given.

Website: www.bodyofwonder.com | www.surftheflow.com | vivrelan.org

Instagram: @surftheflow @bodywondr

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prue-jeffries/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodyofwonder | https://www.facebook.com/surfingtheflow

Youtube: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/640719886

Other: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/640719886

Image Credits
Tiffany Morgan-Campbell Mirco Dondi

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