IE100 Molly Cofman: Healing Harmonies: Ancient Wisdom & Modern Practices (Inspiration Heals)

Our guest for this week is Molly Cofman, a 500-hour certified yoga instructor, acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, avid world traveler, and healer.

About Molly

Molly was always drawn to being a healer and her formal education can attest to that. She holds a Master of Science degree in Oriental Medicine from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine as well as a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Aside from that. she also has a master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts and Dance from the University of Arizona.

For a time, she was also a part of the renowned Human Genome Project, which is still the world’s largest collaborative biological project to date. 

Still, her journey took her away from the traditional medical approach as she discovered it didn’t align with her core values. Molly wanted to make a more personal and direct impact on people’s lives which is why she turned to dance and music - practices she has used as a form of personal therapy her entire life. For her, it was a way of “tapping into the wisdom beyond words.”

Under her personal brand Inspiration Heals, Molly uses resources and knowledge from numerous disciplines and practices in order to provide a unique and effective healing approach. She uses the power of travel to provide people with an opportunity to explore different cultures as well as themselves, all the while teaching on mindfulness practices that help guide the entire experience. Molly is currently based in Tuscany, Italy from where she teaches yoga and eastern healing practices.

If you’re interested in learning more about the work that she’s doing, definitely go check out her website. She hosts retreats throughout the year and the next one will be held in South America, in the Patagonia region during March 2020. Another one, in Nepal, is scheduled for November of next year.

Connect with Molly:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=505240097 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspirationheals/
• Website: https://www.inspirationheals.com/

In This Episode We Canvas:

• The Foundation Of Creativity

Molly’s teachings have a lot to do with facilitating creativity and looking at the notion in a more comprehensive light. Most people that consider themselves uncreative do so because they lose sight of what it actually means to be creative. They focus on the grandiose expressions of creativity which clouds their judgment and makes them believe the lie that they are incapable of creative thought and action, which is never the case.

“For me, I think that the foundation of creativity, and I think that’s something that I’m really striving to facilitate for people, is just the simplicity of perspective. Of seeing life from different perspectives.” - Molly Cofman

• The Connection Between Creativity and Openness

Continuing our conversation on the path of exploring creativity, Molly shares another gem of the role of openness and how it affects our ability to be creative. If creativity is about variation and different perspectives we need to open ourselves up further in order to truly grasp and wield its power.

“It’s having the confidence to walk the walk but not closing any door to possibility.” - Molly Cofman

• Relationship as the Foundation of Life

In this section, Molly talks about how life doesn’t exist or occur in isolation - everything is connected. It is in those connections and relationships that we need to seek self-improvement and growth because isolating ourselves from the world doesn’t work. It only increases our suffering.

“Nothing in life exists out of relationship. Down to the fact that we’re in relationship with our thoughts. It’s not like we’re ever isolated… The very foundation of life is relationship.” - Molly Cofman

• Considerations Regarding the Self-Help Movement

Exploring the notions of isolation and relationship further, Molly brings to light a potential side of self-help movement that can actually have negative impacts if we do not take into account the value of connection.

“I was a little bit at odds with some of the things that were being presented. Not that the foundation of the teachings wasn’t sound but what I felt like it was doing was encouraging people to cocoon themselves.” - Molly Cofman

• Practices That Help Us Cope

We’ve often talked on the podcast about the numerous benefits certain practices and rituals can help lead us to personal growth. Here, Molly talks about how regularly engaging in practices such as mindfulness, meditation, and yoga can help us bring into a healthy space that allows us to be creative.

“That’s why for me, things like yoga, things like the meditative practice things like… Any kind of daily ritual that helps to keep us on track of what direction we believe we want to go… They’re like a beacon of light in the darkness of the unknown.” - Molly Cofman

• Being Governed by the Elements

Understanding the connection between nature and life is yet another topic we dive deep into. Bringing this relationship into focus gives us an opportunity to come back to the elements and draw inspiration from being harmonious with the world around us.

“We are the elements. This physical capsule that I’m walking this life in is made of elements. It’s made of the elements of the Earth… This is how we’re all governed. And when we move back to an understanding of how nature loves to move… It’s such a beautiful way to return to presence.” - Molly Cofman 

• The Romance of Immensity

We’ve mentioned before that as humans, we have a tendency to be attracted by notions of grandeur. But if we were to make a conscious step back from these ideas and look at immensity from a different perspective, we could try and strive towards this greatness as a whole, rather than as individuals.

“Can we take on that role of grandiose as a population, together, rather than it being just a select few people who are trying to shine the light for everyone?... So that little by little the world is populated by people creating these things that are in harmony with nature, with truth, with honesty. So that we share the responsibility of creating.” - Molly Cofman

Molly’s Message of Inspired Evolution

This podcast is a perfect example of how having an interdisciplinary approach allows you to grasp the bigger picture. Molly’s experience truly shines in what is an action-packed 90 minutes of deep conversation and it was a real privilege having her on the show. Her thoughts on creativity, curiosity, and perspective are something that is sure to stay with me for a long time. It would be impossible to sum up all of her wisdom in one single sentence but I truly hope our talk inspires you. That it gives you the inspiration to heal.

“Life isn’t really about a thing. Life is how we choose to interact with the thing.” - Molly Cofman

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